Facebook cites EU report to claim it tackles hate speech better than Google & Twitter

Facebook said that social media firm has been able to tackle hate speech better than Google and Twitter, citing an independent European Commission report. European Commission has released results of its fifth evaluation of 2016 Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online.

results have shown an overall improvement with tech giants assessing 90 per cent of flagged content within 24 hours and removing 71 per cent of content deemed to be illegal hate speech. While Facebook assesses 95.7 per cent of tifications in less than 24 hours, corresponding figures for YouTube stood at 81.5 per cent, and for Twitter at 76.6 per cent.

According to independent report, only Facebook is consistently informing both trusted flaggers and general users as Twitter, YouTube and Instagram provide feedback more frequently when tifications come from trusted flaggers. It said that Facebook gave feedback to 93.7 per cent of tifications, Instagram to 62.4 per cent of tifications, Twitter to 43.8 per cent and YouTube only to 8.8 per cent.

“While we recognize we have more to do, se results suggest we are moving in right direction and have systems in place which continue to lead our industry,” said Guy Rosen, VP Integrity at Facebook, said in a statement.

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'Close gaps'

Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, welcomed “good results” but warned against getting satisfied with se improvements, calling for continuing good work. He urged platforms to close gaps observed in most recent evaluations, in particular on providing feedback to users and transparency. 

Commission said in a statement that it will consider ways to prompt all platforms dealing with illegal hate speech, to set up effective tice-and-action systems. It also vowed to continue facilitating dialogue between IT companies and civil society organisations working on ground to tackle illegal hate speech.

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