Facebook users warned to brace for dangerous coronavirus theories and ‘cures’ as mods go home
Australians should prepare to see many more misleading stories on social media after Facebook was forced to send thousands of human moderators home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Australians should prepare to see many more misleading stories on social media after Facebook was forced to send thousands of human moderators home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The tech giant, which relies on a workforce of almost 15,000 moderators to assess content on its platform, is instead being forced to rely almost solely on software algorithms to remove dangerous, fake information.
Social media experts have warned the problem could expose more weaknesses in the company’s operation, which was already struggling to stamp out fake memes and dangerously false advertisements during the COVID-19 crisis.
The multibillion-dollar tech giant normally uses thousands of human moderators to assess user reports of misleading, violent or threatening content, and censor pornography, hate speech, dangerous conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination ads, and terrorist acts or manifestos.
But the moderators are located in 20 centres around the world, including the Philippines and India, where coronavirus lockdowns are preventing workers from leaving their homes.
And while many of its US-based contract moderators have been asked to work from home, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told reporters some information could not be securely shared with out-of-office workers, forcing the company to rely more heavily on its software to flag and remove dangerous information.
The news comes as the coronavirus pandemic has triggered a new wave of misleading ads, posts, and memes shared by thousands on Facebook.
An experiment by Consumer Reports in the US this month saw seven paid ads with dangerously misleading information about coronavirus approved for use on the network, including one that encouraged people to drink “small daily doses” of bleach.
AAP Factcheck also flagged false information on Facebook linking COVID-19 to 5G networks and the Spanish flu to the introduction of radio waves, as well as video pretending to show 5G towers being removed in mainland China, and a misleading meme about pandemics arriving every 100 years that was shared more than 26,000 times.
Swinburne University social media major director Dr Belinda Barnet said social media users should brace for more deceptive content to appear online as malicious users exploited fear in the community and Facebook failed to stop it.
Dr Barnet said human moderators were usually the last line of defence for Facebook, as they assessed content that had been flagged for review by other users and the company’s algorithm.
“Moderators keep the whole thing going,” she said. “When you take the humans away, we’ll see more mistakes.
“They will now have to rely on their algorithms and community reporting and, as we’ve seen with live shootings, that is not always reliable.”
In addition to more misleading information, Dr Barnet warned Facebook users would also see “false flags” in which legitimate posts were censored by mistake as the software failed to tell the difference.
She said the problem would underline the important role that human moderators still played in digital platforms despite their low-profile and low pay.
“Facebook relies very heavily on moderators but it’s a hidden phenomenon,” Dr Barnet said.
“At Facebook, the employees are in separate buildings to the moderators — it’s a very hush-hush profession — but the algorithm is still not as efficient as human moderators.”
Despite the setback, Facebook global affairs and communications vice-president Nick Clegg said the company had introduced a “COVID-19 Information Centre” to the network’s menu and was allowing the World Health Organisation to advertise for free.
Mr Clegg said the company was also removing information about coronavirus that “could contribute to imminent physical harm,” though other content such as “conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus” would only be removed after claims had been fact-checked by Facebook partners.