Facebook intends to delete up to 66 thousand posts every week. The posts to be deleted will be classified to contain content comprising of hate speech. The company has employed a large group of people who will be responsible for deleting the hate speech content.
In a statement issued by Richard Allan, who is Facebook’s vice president of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Facebook defines hate speech as any type of content that attacks other people based on their protected characteristics. These protected characteristics, according to the company, include any serious disease or disability, the gender identity, their gender, sex, sexual orientation, their religious affiliation, race, national origin and ethnic affiliation.
Richard Allan was also quoted to say that there are no concrete definitions of what constitutes hate speech. However, there are laws stipulated by each country on what makes up hate speech.
As for Facebook, there are many aspects that will be put into consideration as to what makes up hate speech. Besides following the rules put in place by governments and other bodies in authority, Facebook aims to empower its employees to determine what crosses the line in terms of hate speech.
Facebook is not alone in the fight against hate speech and other forms of negative speech. Other social platforms such as Twitter and YouTube have also put in place measures to curb the wrongful use of their platforms. The social networks are working hand in hand with government and non-governmental firms to ensure that those who perpetrate any form of hate speech area stopped from doing so.
In some cases, those found to be perpetrating hate speech are prosecuted by their representative laws. A while back, the government of Pakistan, together with other countries on the Asian continent, teamed up with Facebook to find those guilty of perpetrating hate speech in the form of blasphemy. Several Facebook accounts were closed with the owners being arrested for prosecution. Such cases show how serious the issue of hate speech is being taken by the authorities.
