At the WSJ Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, Meta Platforms Inc.’s META chief product officer, Chris Cox, addressed the striking disparities in content moderation between Instagram, Facebook, and Threads compared to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) in the context of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
What Happened: At the conference, Cox was asked about the proliferation of graphic and news-related content from Israel and Gaza on various social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, and if he has taken any specific steps to deal with them.
Cox explained that Meta’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict involved immediate activation of their “Special Operation Centre.”
This center provides round-the-clock, 24/7 coverage staffed with Arabic and Hebrew speakers in direct contact with law enforcement and civil society representatives in Israel and Palestine.
He further said that Meta’s primary objective during this crisis has been to closely monitor and respond to content that gains virality or is reported.
“To make sure we are paying attention in real-time to everything that is getting virality, anything that is getting reported, making sure we have appropriate language support and making sure we are getting as much coverage as humanly possible, as fast as humanly possible. And taking down content that promotes violence and celebrates a terrorist organization, which Hamas is,” he said.
Cox added, “It’s very important work. It’s work that is aided by decades now of experience. That, for better or worse, we had. And being attentive to cultural nuances and the immediacy of parts of the world in conflict. So, yes, when this happens, there are changes to sort of the attention that we pay to a region.”
Why It’s Important: The EU’s regulatory bodies have been increasingly vigilant about content on X and Meta’s social media platforms that might incite violence or have ties to terrorism.
Meta previously revealed their intensive content moderation efforts, reporting the removal of over 795,000 content breaches in Hebrew and Arabic within three days of Hamas’ attack on Israel.
On the other hand, X said that it’s using Community Notes to provide context for posts, videos, and photos shared on the platform.
However, there’s been some controversy surrounding this feature.
A graphic video shared by Donald Trump Jr., supposedly depicting Hamas fighters attacking Israeli citizens, was mistakenly marked as old and not from Israel by the user-generated fact-checking system within Community Notes.
Musk has also highlighted the conflict’s impact on advertising revenue, saying, “Advertising revenue on our platform drops massively during war.”
Image source – Shutterstock
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