Facebook has taken many steps over the past several years to address the problem of hate speech and other abusive or offensive content on its platform. However, the company’s latest content moderation report revealed a disturbing upward trend in these areas that has exploded over the past month. According to Facebook parent company Meta’s own numbers, Facebook saw a 38 percent increase in hate speech during the month of April, while Instagram saw an astounding 86 percent increase in violent content.

In an attempt to comfort users, Facebook also noted that as the volume of this content increases, the company is removing more of it, too.

“We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action on for going against our standards. This metric shows the scale of our enforcement activity,” Facebook said in its report. “Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning.”

While it’s good to know that Facebook is doing its best to keep up with this problem, it’s clear it still has a lot of work to do to prevent these numbers from exploding even further.

Recommended Resources

The Choice of Tech Experts Worldwide. Try 90 days free of Bitdefender and experience the highest level of digital safety.

Surf the web truly incognito. Try Bitdefender Premium VPN, the ultra-fast VPN that keeps your online identity and activities safe from hackers, ISPs and snoops.

System Mechanic 14 – Make your computer run like new. Winner of 200+ Editor’s Choice awards!