Facebook had a very unsuccessful week in its fight against misinformation and hate speech (FB)
Drew Angerer/Getty Images; The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
- Facebook had a bad week when it came to cleaning up toxic content on its platform.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook refused to take action against a politician who violated its hate speech policies for fear of backlash, just months Trump's controversial posts suggesting violence against protesters.
- Another report from NBC News found that Facebook has discovered a community of millions of QAnon conspiracy theorists on its platform, and according to a report from Tech Transparency Report failed to deliver on its pledge to crack down on violent boogaloo hate groups.
- The company also got slammed for a loophole in its fact-checking policies that allow climate change skeptics to spread falsehoods by labeling them as "opinion," The Verge reported.
- Amid a scathing civil rights audit, grilling from lawmakers, and major advertiser boycott, Facebook has promised to "get better" at tackling hate speech and misinformation, but this week's missteps show that the company still has a long way to go.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
In early July, Facebook executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and chief product officer Chris Cox geared up for a meeting with civil rights leaders who were fed up with what they called the company's failure to curb hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
The groups had organized an unprecedented advertiser boycott over the issue and did not mince words in their criticisms of the social media giant.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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See Also:
- Amazon is chockfull of products promoting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory even as fellow tech giants like Facebook, TikTok, Google, and Twitter crack down
- Facebook says it will now ban 'implicit hate speech' like blackface and anti-Semitic stereotypes
- An internal Facebook audit reportedly shows QAnon groups have millions of members, but some employees who ran the investigation fear the company won't take any action
