Over 26.9 million content pieces 'actioned' on Facebook in September: Meta

Social media giant Meta on Monday said over 26.9 million content pieces were "actioned" on Facebook across 10 violation categories proactively in India during the month of September.

Its photo sharing platform Instagram took action against over 3.2 million pieces across nine categories during the same period proactively, as per data shared in a compliance report.

Under the IT rules that came into effect earlier this year, large digital platforms (with over 5 million users) have to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon. It also includes details of content removed or disabled via proactive monitoring using automated tools.

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Facebook had "actioned" about 31.7 million content pieces proactively in August, while Instagram took action against about 2.2 million pieces across nine categories during the same period proactively.

On Monday, Meta said 708 user reports were received by Facebook through its Indian grievance mechanism between September 1-30.

"Of these incoming reports, we provided tools for users to resolve their issues in 589 cases," the report said.

These include pre-established channels to report content for specific violations, self-remediation flows where they can download their data, avenues to address account hacked issues, among others, it added.

Between September 1-30, Instagram received 418 reports through the Indian grievance mechanism.

"Over the years, we have consistently invested in technology, people and processes to further our agenda of keeping our users safe and secure online and enable them to express themselves freely on our platform.

"We use a combination of Artificial Intelligence, reports from our community and review by our teams to identify and review content against our policies," a Meta spokesperson said.

Last week, Facebook's parent company changed its name to Meta. Apps under Meta include Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Oculus.

As per the report released on Monday, the over 26.9 million content pieces actioned by Facebook during September included content related to spam (20.3 million), violent and graphic content (3.4 million), adult nudity and sexual activity (2.4 million), and hate speech (182,200).

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Other categories under which content was actioned include bullying and harassment (89,500), suicide and self-injury (394,100), dangerous organisations and individuals: terrorist propaganda (135,400) and dangerous organisations and individuals: organised hate (19,600).

"Actioned" content refers to the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) where action has been taken for violation of standards. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning.

The proactive rate, which indicates the percentage of all content or accounts acted on which Facebook found and flagged using technology before users reported them, in most of these cases ranged between 78.6 - 99.9 per cent.

The proactive rate for removal of content related to bullying and harassment was 48.7 per cent as this content is contextual and highly personal by nature. In many instances, people need to report this behaviour to Facebook before it can identify or remove such content.

For Instagram, about 3.2 million pieces of content were actioned across nine categories during September 2021.

This includes content related to suicide and self-injury (702,600), violent and graphic content (1.7 million), adult nudity and sexual activity (516,800), and bullying and harassment (307,000).

Other categories under which content was actioned include hate speech (33,600), dangerous organisations and individuals: terrorist propaganda (6,400), and dangerous organisations and individuals: organised hate (8,000).