Invested over $13 bn on safety and security since 2016, says Facebook

As the world is evolving with the influx of technology across sectors, companies scrutinised for complex issues are making significant progress in terms of privacy, safety, and security, to name a few. Facebook has changed a lot, wherein they have prioritised safety and security norms, which have shown impact, expanded systems to reduce misinformation and promote reliable information and build new products which are path-breaking innovations done responsibly. As the world has changed, so has Facebook to adapt responsibly.

In a note on its website Facebook admitted that “In the past, we didn’t address safety and security challenges early enough in the product development process. Instead, we made improvements reactively in response to a specific abuse. But we have fundamentally changed that approach.”

The social media giant further said that today, it embeds teams focusing specifically on safety and security issues directly into product development teams, allowing the company to address these issues during the product development process, not after it. Products also have to go through an Integrity Review process, similar to the Privacy Review process, so Facebook can anticipate potential abuses and build in ways to mitigate them.

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Speaking about how it has fortified its safety and security function, Facebook informed that it has invested more than $13 billion in teams and technology in this area since 2016, and that 40,000 people are working on safety and security today. Facebook added, “Since 2017, Facebook’s security teams have disrupted and removed more than 150 covert influence operations, both foreign and domestic, helping prevent similar abuse. Our advanced AI has helped us block 3 billion fake accounts in the first half of this year.”

Regarding combating misinformation, Facebook said that it has begun addressing this comprehensively – rather than treating it as a single problem with a single solution. The social media major said that it has been removing false and harmful content that violated it Community Standards, including more than 20 million pieces of false COVID-19 and vaccine content. For this, Facebook has built a global network of more than 80 independent fact-checking partners who rate the accuracy of posts covering more than 60 languages across its apps.

While in 2016, political and issue ads were not subject to vigorous identity checks, today, around 3.5 million ad submissions were rejected before they ran, for not completing the authorisation process or not attaching a paid-for-by disclaimer in the first six months of 2021.