Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is again on the receiving end for its reluctance in removing child exploitation imagery from its platform. The images were reported by BBC, which has carrying out an investigation into Facebook’s reporting of unsuitable content. The news agency claims that it had revealed over 100 photos of sexualized images of children but apparently only 18 had been removed.
Apart from the images, BBC says it also found about five convicted pedophiles with profiles. However, even after reporting to Facebook through its system, BBC claims that the social media giant did not take any action in bringing down the accounts.
Facebook has rules forbidding convicted sex offenders from opening accounts. It is also against its policies for anyone to distribute any unlawful images or sexually suggestive content. Nonetheless, the content may have been taken down but the question many are asking is; why did it take so long for Facebook to take action on the images and the accounts?
A spokeswoman from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children claims, “Facebook’s failure to remove illegal content from its website is appalling and violates the agreements they have in place to protect children. It also raises the question of what content they consider to be inappropriate and dangerous to children.”
More than meet the eye between Facebook and BBC
The two seems to be after each other. In a different twist of events, Facebook claims that BBC shared some of the reported images with Facebook. Reports by TechCrunch indicted that all along Facebook had been following CEOP guidelines but in response, BBC says it only sent images following a request by Facebook.
It is a clearly a blame game here, which is not likely to settle soon. Nonetheless, there is some truth in the fact that Facebook’s content moderation system is far from being perfect. It seems like even the “thousands” of human moderators are just a drop in the bucket for the platform. Remember the messaging platform has more than a billion active users who are sharing all manner of content.
So who is to blame? In the meantime, Facebook’s stock closed at $137.30 a fall of $0.12 or 0.09%.
