Facebook cracks down on content related to sex, violence, terror, hate speech

Following the Cambridge Analytica incident, Facebook has moved to reinforce its commitment to transparency. For this, Facebook has updated its Transparency Report to also include a Community Standards Enforcement Report. Facebook believes that this transparency helps hold governments and the social media platform accountable. 

The Community Standards Enforcement Report provides information about Facebook’s enforcement efforts between October 2017 and March 2018 in six areas: graphic violence, adult nudity and sexual activity, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, spam and fake accounts. 

Earlier this week, Facebook had suspended close to 200 apps on its platform for misusing private user data. 

Government requests for account data increased globally by around 4 per cent, compared to the first half of 2017, increasing from 78,890 to 82,341 requests. In the US, government requests remained roughly even at 32,742, of which 62 per cent included a non-disclosure order prohibiting Facebook from notifying the user, which is up from 57 per cent during the first half of 2017. In addition, as a result of transparency updates introduced in the 2016 USA Freedom Act, the US government lifted the non-disclosure orders on 14 National Security Letters (NSLs) we received between 2013 and 2016. 

During the second half of 2017, the number of pieces of content Facebook restricted based on local law fell from 28,036 to 14,294. Last cycle’s figures had been increased primarily by content restrictions in Mexico related to the video of a tragic school shooting. 

There were 46 disruptions of Facebook services in 12 countries in the second half of 2017, compared to 52 disruptions in nine countries in the first half. Facebook has expressed its deep concerns on the internet disruptions, which prevent people from communicating with family and friends and also threaten the growth of small businesses. 

The report also includes data covering the volume and nature of copyright, trademark and counterfeit reports Facebook received, as well as the amount of content affected by those reports. During this period, on Facebook and Instagram, 2,776,665 pieces of content were taken down based on 373,934 copyright reports; 222,226 pieces of content were taken down based on 61,172 trademark reports; and 459,176 pieces of content were taken down based on 28,680 counterfeit reports.