Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men from Hate Speech But Not Black Children

An important piece that sheds light on how Facebook decides on what is allowed on the platform and what gets removed. It has been shared widely and also been used as proof that Facebook is actively discriminating and opressing voices (the title of the piece certainly sets the tone). I think that’s wrong. Facebook deals with billions and billions of pieces of content every day and needs a set of rules that work across hundreds of national laws and cultural norms. That is a highly complex problem to solve. And while Facebook as arguably the worlds largest arbiter of human expression certainly needs to take more responsibilty, I don’t think lazy, one-dimensional criticism is helpful.