#184, Just
Image. Decision. Image. Decision. Image. Decision. Every three seconds, a new photo pops on the screen. Ignore or delete? Over the course of an eight hour day, a single Facebook employee may check 5,000 photos. With a team of 16,000 content moderators, that’s 80 million photos a day. And what exactly are they checking for?
just adj. agreeing with what is considered morally right or good
Well, the answer is complicated. Facebook’s Community Standards runs 27 pages in length and covers a wide range of content ranging from hate speech to violent content to cruelty. This set of standards determines what can and cannot be posted on Facebook. The content moderators are responsible for enforcing these standards. Sometimes, this is easy. KKK propaganda? Delete. Animal cruelty? Delete. But other times, it’s not so black and white.
A woman being grabbed and forced onto her knees in front of a camera. And then a man with his face covered grabs her head, pulls her head back and slices her head off right in front of the camera.
SOURCE: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/post-no-evil
This video, originating from northern Mexico spread all across Facebook. In 2010, there was rampant fighting between the police and drug cartels, but it was not being covered on the news. Reporters contacted state officials who would deny anything was wrong. They called it “collective psychosis” essentially calling the citizens crazy. Facebook and other social media platforms were the only mediums to find out what was really happening. The video of the woman being beheaded was clear evidence of the violence by the drug cartels. It could warn hundreds of thousands of people of the danger in Mexico…but, it violated Facebook’s Community Standards. What is just?
To complete this Journal response,
Imagine that you are the head of Facebook’s Community Standards. You must decide whether or not to allow this video to be posted. What would you do? Weigh both sides in your response.
Comment on a peer’s response.
-Brenden Lee Teacher