Since Facebook developed from a Harvard campus pictorial address book to what is now a 2 billion-users-active-worldwide website meant not to be a company but to “make the world more open and connected,” it has realized a dark side to humanity and to that mission, new documents show. The Guardian reports it has “seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm.” The guidelines show just how messy human interaction can be and how a social media giant is caught between free speech and protecting itself and others.
Guidelines show being a Facebook moderator is a lot harder than it sounds as they often see a much darker side to humanity than the vacation posts or “humblebrags” about kid accomplishments. Overwhelmed with issues from revenge porn, suicide, terrorism, animal abuse, child abuse and a myriad of other objectionable issues, moderators supposedly have “just 10 seconds” to react and either flag or delete a post. Moderators are told while they can’t allow specific threats to, for example, current heads of state, they do allow vague threats such as “kick a person with red hair.” If nude pictures meet certain standards, they’re dubbed “revenge porn” and flagged. Even flagging photos or posts with children seems difficult: “We do not action photos of child abuse. We mark as disturbing videos of child abuse. We remove imagery of child abuse if shared with sadism and celebration.”
It’s even harder to navigate posts and photos regarding suicide and death because Facebook deems that not all death is graphic and some footage can “be valuable in creating awareness for self-harm afflictions and mental illness or war crimes and other important issues.” The guidelines suggest, “Videos of violent deaths are disturbing but can help create awareness. For videos, we think minors need protection and adults need a choice. We mark as ‘disturbing’ videos of the violent deaths of humans.”
Some folks say Facebook should be regulated due to the influence it has on the world and the amount of controversial material circulating on the site — it has livestreamed at least two homicides. Other child-protection experts say at least that aspect, child abuse or child porn, should be heavily moderated, ridding the site of any “gray” areas. While live homicides, revenge porn, child abuse and other sadistic behaviors are unfortunate and wrong, Facebook is a private company. If it wants to censor some things (like GOP-related political news) and not others, that is its right — forcing its hand with government regulation seems unwise.
If enough people are concerned about content posted on the site, let them lobby Facebook and demand change — or, better yet, show them how they feel by leaving the site altogether. That’s how the free market works.
One of Facebook’s goals — to encourage free speech — will come back to haunt it and indeed already has. Facebook isn’t the government: Ensuring the First Amendment lives, while altruistic, is a trend that doesn’t function the same on a website as it is supposed to in real life. In real life, there are law enforcement personnel and the judicial system, which (ideally) function symbiotically to protect constitutional rights.
The fact that Facebook even needs moderators who are forced to make these difficult decisions flies in the face of Facebook’s initial purpose. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always been clear that the mission of Facebook is to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” While it has no doubt done that, unfortunately, not everybody wants to hold hands and sing kumbaya.
That doesn’t mean Zuckerberg’s goal wasn’t admirable — it was and has no doubt brought people together in good ways — but with the sweetness and light, with the vacation pictures and birthday milestones, come suicide and revenge, abuse and murder. Humanity is inevitably a group of people who often war within to make good choices. Turns out, Facebook isn’t one big online jaunt at the beach or birthday celebration, but also a site full of conflicted, greedy, selfish people — a microcosm of humanity if you will.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
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