Digital Rights Groups Want You To Know Why Facebook Posts Are Removed

Facebook often receives criticism for the hate speech, terrorist content and more that exists on its platform. And, on the flip side, the company has faced scrutiny for removing posts that it shouldn’t. But no matter the outcome, the company’s rules can cause confusion. It’s rarely clear why Facebook makes a decision one way or the other, especially for users who have been affected. That’s why, this week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU and more than 70 other groups wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling for the company to let all users file an appeal if their content is removed.

In the letter, the groups write that Facebook’s appeals process “doesn’t go far enough.” They also want Facebook to share more data about the process, including how and why specific posts are removed.

“Facebook remains far behind its competitors when it comes to affording its users due process,” the groups wrote in their letter. “We know from years of research and documentation that human content moderators, as well as machine learning algorithms, are prone to error, and that even low error rates can result in millions of silenced users when operating at massive scale.”

The sheer amount of advocacy groups that reached out to Facebook in this letter is notable, as is their reputation. At the very least, this may force Facebook to sit up and pay attention to what they’re saying.