Mark Zuckerberg’s company, Meta, has been accused by human rights campaigners of neglecting an important online safety initiative aimed at combating fake news and misinformation.
Critics claim that Meta has insufficiently allocated resources to its Trusted Partner program, resulting in operational failures and delays in addressing misinformation campaigns.
Internews, a non-profit organization focused on promoting media freedoms, insists that Meta’s lack of resources has significantly hindered the effectiveness of the program.
Furthermore, the report highlights Meta’s downsizing efforts, which involved cutting over 20,000 employees, as potentially further compromising content moderation and the Trusted Partner program.
Although some of the issues predate the layoffs, Internews warns that cost-saving measures would only exacerbate the situation.
“Given the issues… cost-saving cuts would further jeopardize the program and worsen the Trusted Partners experience,” the report asserts.
Internews specifically points out that complaints regarding misinformation related to conflicts, such as the Tigray War in Ethiopia, often go unanswered for months, while issues concerning content spreading in Ukraine are typically addressed promptly.
Rafiq Copeland of Internews states, “Meta’s partners are deeply frustrated with how the program has been run.” Copeland adds, “We and other Trusted Partners are ready to collaborate effectively with Meta to address the issues raised in this review.”
Meta’s Trusted Partners program encompasses 645 charities, news organizations, and fact-checking entities.
Meta responded to the report, claiming that certain findings do not accurately represent the overall picture.
In its response included in the report, Meta details its commitment to developing new methods for sharing information on the program’s impact and performance.
The social media giant also acknowledges the need for clear reporting guidelines and tracking mechanisms for Trusted Partner reports, revealing its plans to create customized reporting templates for different types of harmful content to facilitate feedback from partners.
Meta affirms, “We welcome constructive dialogue with any of our Trusted Partners.”
In response to the growing dissatisfaction with Meta’s response times, Internews conducted a review of the program. The organization reveals that it took Meta 200 days to respond to a list of questions.
Meta attributes the increase in response times from 2020 to 2021 to the COVID-19 pandemic and assures that reports are now expected to be addressed within one to five days.
The tech giant faced backlash in 2017 for its failure to prevent the spread of misinformation and hate speech in Myanmar during a period of violent attacks against the Rohingya minority group.
In an attempt to combat misinformation, Meta previously dedicated $100 million to establish a global fact-checking network and currently employs an estimated team of 15,000 content reviewers.
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