Facebook responded Tuesday to growing pressure from consumers, advertisers and feminist groups for the social network to address content encouraging violence against women.
In a lengthy public post Facebook’s vice-president of global policy, Marne Levine, addressed the concerns and outlined its strategy for increasing the speed at which hate speech is removed from Facebook.
“In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate. In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want,” she said.
Levine outline several steps Facebook is taking to ensure hate speech is removed promptly including updating training for Facebook employees tasked with reviewing and evaluating hate speech, and testing a requirement for the creator of any flagged material to include an “authentic identity” in order for the post to remain on Facebook.
Facebook is also strengthening its ties to third party groups, including women’s groups, which will consult the company on the type of content they believe violates Facebook’s standards.
The response follows an open letter from Women, Action and the Media undersigned by many organizations including YMCA Canada, the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter and Canadian Women’s Foundation demanding a response from Facebook and calling on advertisers to revoke their ad spend until Facebook adequately dealt with the problem.
On Twitter, people shared photos of ads placed alongside graphic, misogynistic images using the hashtag #fbrape.
Earlier on Tuesday Nissan announced it has pulled its current campaign from Facebook following complaints from consumers who saw the ad next to offensive content. A similar move was announced by British financial lending and mortgage firm Nationwide. Dove also addressed the problem, stating it has been working closely with Facebook to find a solution.
One advertising executive, Christian Purser, head of digital at ad agency M&C Saatchi in the U.K. told the Financial Times this is a “watershed moment” for Facebook, stating, “They do have to take responsibility for content if they are to continue growing their advertising.”
On Wednesday Women, Action & the Media released a second statement applauding Facebook for its response. “Facebook has admirably done more than most other companies to address this topic in regards to content policy,” the statement reads. “We will work closely with Facebook on the issue of how Community Standards around hate speech are evaluated and to ensure best practices represent the interests of our coalition.”
“Facebook has already been a leader on the internet in addressing hate speech on its service. We believe that this is the foundation for an effective working collaboration designed to confront gender-based hate speech effectively.”
However, according to a story at MarketingWeek.co.uk, Nationwide won’t return to Facebook over concerns its ads might show up beside offensive content.
“Nationwide advertising on Facebook remains suspended,” states the Marketing Week story, quoting an unnamed Nationwide spokesperson. “However, we welcome the initial commitments made by Facebook yesterday (28 May) to continue to improve their responses to violations of standards.
“As a responsible and trusted consumer brand, we do feel that sites like Facebook should have stringent processes and guidelines in place to ensure that brands are able to protect themselves from appearing alongside inappropriate content.”
A rep for Facebook Canada said the company is “always working to make advertisers comfortable with advertising and the site,” adding, “Brand safety has and always will be important to us.”
