Facebook said Tuesday that it will allow people for the first time to appeal decisions to take down questionable content.
The announcement came in a post in Facebook’s newsroom that also explained how Facebook decides what can be posted and what can’t. That post, from Facebook’s vice president of Global Product Management Monika Bickert, admitted that Facebook’s decision-making “isn’t perfect,” and said that’s why it will allow appeals for the first time.
“We know we need to do more,” Bickert said. “That’s why, over the coming year, we are going to build out the ability for people to appeal our decisions. As a first step, we are launching appeals for posts that were removed for nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence.”
Facebook said if it decides to remove a post for those reasons, the person who posted it will be notified and given a chance to ask for a second review.
“This will lead to a review by our team (always by a person), typically within 24 hours,” Facebook said. “If we’ve made a mistake, we will notify you, and your post, photo or video will be restored.”
“We are working to extend this process further, by supporting more violation types, giving people the opportunity to provide more context that could help us make the right decision, and making appeals available not just for content that was taken down, but also for content that was reported and left up,” Bickert said. “We believe giving people a voice in the process is another essential component of building a fair system.”
Facebook has been closely criticized recently after it was revealed that millions of users’ personal information was gathered from the social media site and shared with research firm Cambridge Analytica.
