Facebook with new policies to remove disruptive content

The latest news on Facebook claim that the social network will pay its moderators a total of $ 52 million in damages. The firm made the decision to provide this sum of money to its employees who were assigned the difficult task of removing violent and harmful content. The material was uploaded through photos and videos posted as posts by users. The case went to California justice in the United States.

Background to a similar event

The tension between Facebook and its moderators has a precedent in 2018 in a case of Accentura employees against Facebook. Accenture said that the social network did not protect its employees, who were systematically subjected to shocking materials with violence, fornication, beheading, terror, animal cruelty, shooting, and the like. Due to the need for therapy for some of its workers, a settlement of $ 1,000 was reached for each participant in the lawsuit. Those who could prove traumatic medical outcomes as a result of their work commitments, were entitled to free treatment and could sue up to $ 50,000.
The company has always expressed gratitude to people for finding and eliminating hazardous materials. The company repeatedly stated that they were committed to providing them with extra support.
Workers around the world share the same complaints as their American counterparts. Chris Gray, who worked for the company in Ireland, talks about a case from his personal experience. Gray was forced to see disgusting images of executions, mass suicides, racist publications and other torture of supporters of the Islamic State. Problems that arise as a result of this systematic view of such materials inevitably lead to post-traumatic stress. He says the trauma may go unidentified for a long time, but over time it can detect the presence of irritability, emotional sensitivity, and unstable behavior.

Strengthening controls

For its part, Facebook is increasingly developing innovative practices to identify unpleasant content. With the help of trained Artificial Intelligence programs, you can find texts and graphic images that do not comply with Facebook's policies. In early 2020, the company stepped up the elimination of violence and hate propaganda posts. Several groups on the social network were banned due to calls to riot.
For comparison, in the first quarter of 2020 alone, around 4.7 million posts were removed compared to 1.6 million in the same period in 2019. CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes the approach with warning labels for Sensitive materials has also been very successful. The move allowed users to decide which content to watch and which not to watch.
Earlier this month, the Facebook news was announced about the creation of a Supervisory Board and some of the names that would comprise it. The team includes scientists, journalists, writers, and even a Nobel Prize winner. The objective is that they take definitions about the content that is uploaded to the site and can cause problems. The Facebook CEO said numerous complaints about harmful content led them to make the decision. Once the Board is formed, it will operate independently of the company and will have the supreme arbitration power over questionable content.
The US company tells its users that greater transparency aims to eliminate suspicions of political interference on Facebook. In line with this, the most important social network in the world will fight to avoid electoral interference and massive disinformation. Facebook also assured that the selection of the first twenty members took into account their professional experience and training. The Oversight Board includes former politicians, judges, and publishers from around the world, including Britain, Hungary, Israel, Pakistan, Colombia, and Africa. The team speaks more than 29 languages, which shows the search for plurality of the plan.
The Board does not plan to deal with cases where a decision has already been made and the company has removed the content at its discretion. Until the entire team is formed, the work will be carried out by the first twenty members, who will be able to review the cases and identify the points of view raised. The remaining members of this panel will be announced next year.