Meta Platforms Cracks Down on Objectionable Content and Censorship

Advertisement

FB stock - Meta Platforms Cracks Down on Objectionable Content and Censorship

Source: Chinnapong / Shutterstock.com

According to The Times of India, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) stock took down 21.2 million pieces of content on Facebook and 2.4 million units of material on Instagram, both platforms which the social media and technology giant owns. Specifically, Meta cited violations of 13 policies and 12 policies, respectively.

Through out the month of February of this year, Meta received 478 reports through its India-based grievance mechanism, responding to 100% of these claims. In most of the cases (402 of them to be precise), the tech firm provided tools for users to resolve their issues.

While not all the issues involved offensive or objectionable material, Meta claims that it deploys a combination of artificial intelligence protocols, reports from its social network communities and administrative reviews to identify and ultimately take action against policy-violating content. It’s not unusual for FB stock to take down millions of materials, which encompass violence, graphic content and prurient activities.

At the same time while the social media giant is responding to objectionable material, censorship debates rage in the U.S. Competing platforms such as Trump Media & Technology Group’s Truth Social — which will become public via a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition (NASDAQ:DWAC) — have garnered immense popularity, in part due to their anti-censorship ideology.

However, mainstream platforms like Facebook and Instagram have a moral obligation to society to censor certain material. True, no clear quantifiable standard exists regarding the differentiation between, for example, fine art and salacious content. However, in light of certain social networks commanding a broad audience, it behooves mainstream organizations to adopt (ironically enough) a conservative approach.

In other words, a company can never go wrong by adopting family friendly material. However, by allowing or facilitating controversial content and ideologies, an organization runs the risk of alienating potential users. As well, advertising opportunities will be limited as companies shy away from certain toxicities.

On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2022/04/fb-stock-crack-down-censorship-insights/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC