Facebook said Wednesday it is hiring an extra 3,000 staff to root out violent content as the social media giant faces scrutiny for a series of killings and…
Facebook said Wednesday it is hiring an extra 3,000 staff to root out violent content as the social media giant faces scrutiny for a series of killings and suicides broadcast on its platform.
« If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly, » chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page.
« We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down. »
The 3,000 new recruits, added over the coming year, will increase by two thirds the size of Facebook’s community operations team, which currently numbers 4,500.
Zuckerberg’s announcement came a week after a 20-year-old Thai man broadcast live video on the world’s most popular social media platform, showing him killing his baby daughter before committing suicide.
The previous week, a US man dubbed the « Facebook Killer » fatally shot himself after three days of a frantic nationwide manhunt.
« We’ve seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook — either live or in video posted later, » Zuckerberg said. « It’s heartbreaking, and I’ve been reflecting on how we can do better for our community. »
The additional reviewers will « help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation, » he said.
« And we’ll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it — either because they’re about to harm themselves, or because they’re in danger from someone else. »
Critics say the social network has been too slow to react to online violence, and questioned whether Facebook Live — a strategic area of development for the company — should be disabled, after several cases in which it was used to broadcast rapes.
Zuckerberg said Facebook has been working on better technology that can identify violent or inappropriate content — and that its efforts to screen for acts of violence appeared to be paying off.
« Just last week, we got a report that someone on Live was considering suicide, » he said.
« We immediately reached out to law enforcement, and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself. In other cases, we weren’t so fortunate. »
