If you encounter abusive content on Facebook, do you press the "Report abuse" button?
Facebook has lifted the veil on the processes it puts into action when one of its 900 million users reports abuse on the site, in a post the Facebook Safety Group published earlier this week on the site.
Facebook has four teams who deal with abuse reports on the social network. The Safety Team deals with violent and harmful behaviour, Hate and Harrassment tackle hate speech, the Abusive Content Team handle scams, spam and sexually explicit content, and finally the Access Team assist users when their accounts are hacked or impersonated by imposters.
Clearly it's important that Facebook is on top of issues like this 24 hours a day, and so the company has based its support teams in four locations worldwide - in the United States, staff are based in Menlo Park, California and Austin, Texas. For coverage of other timezones, there are also teams operating in Dublin and Hyderabad in India.
According to Facebook, abuse complaints are normally handled within 72 hours, and the teams are capable of providing support in up to 24 different languages.
If posts are determined by Facebook staff to be in conflict with the site's community standards then action can be taken to remove content and - in the most serious cases - inform law enforcement agencies.
Facebook has produced an infographic which shows how the process works, and gives some indication of the wide variety of abusive content that can appear on such a popular site.
The graphic is, unfortunately, too wide to show easily on Naked Security - but click on the image below to view or download a larger version.
Of course, you shouldn't forget that just because there's content that you might feel is abusive or offensive that Facebook's team will agree with you.
As Facebook explains:
Because of the diversity of our community, it's possible that something could be disagreeable or disturbing to you without meeting the criteria for being removed or blocked. For this reason, we also offer personal controls over what you see, such as the ability to hide or quietly cut ties with people, Pages, or applications that offend you.
To be frank, the speed of Facebook's growth has sometimes out-run its ability to protect users. It feels to me that there was a greater focus on getting new members than respecting the privacy and safety of those who had already joined. Certainly, when I received death threats from Facebook users a few years ago I found the site's response pitiful.
I like to imagine that Facebook is now growing up. As the website approaches a billion users, Facebook loves to describe itself in terms of being one of the world's largest countries.
Real countries invest in social services and other agencies to protect their citizens. As Facebook matures I hope that we will see it take even more care of its users, defending them from abuse and ensuring that their experience online can be as well protected as possible.
We would be interested in hearing about your experiences when you report abusive content to Facebook. Were you happy with Facebook's reponse? Join the discussion on our Facebook page
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I figured nothing happens. I always thought it just tells me what I want to hear and then blocks the "abuse" from my eyes. That seems more in line with Facebook's mission of sharing information while satisfying the complaints of a diverse population.
I actually wish that Facebook would be more aggressive with some of the reports. I've had issues with impersonation and hate acts, and Facebook was slow to handle the requests.
I mean eventually the imposter profiles were removed, but it took a bit too long. I can tell you though, that porn usually is removed first and almost immediately. It doesn't stay up for very long.
What about those "heartwarming" and heavily Liked photos, like Subway's free subs for homeless on Fridays, Old married couples (there are several), and baby and grandma hands, Like if you hate bullying, etc,, that are little more than wholesome fronts for luring the young.
A simple check of the comments (with further comments disabled, of course, lest the critical ones become buried) shows "Like if you see your age" then lists numbers starting with 11.
Interesting graphic. I notice there is no procedure in place for objecting to a "ban" or a "block". So it's a one-way street. Whoever gets their report against you in first, wins.
The Facebook reporting system requires that a complaint belongs to one of a number of categories, shown in the flow chart. What do you do when your complaint is about something different?
I tried to report a post that was in contempt of court (with the possibility of heavy fines for Facebook), because it made adverse comments about a man who is awaiting trial in the UK. This example did not fit any of the radio-button options in the Facebook complaints pop-up, there was no "other" button, and there was nowhere to explain why the post was problematic. In the end, I had to log out and use the form-to-mail that Facebook offers for complaints from people who do not have a Facebook account.
Now you've explained that different types of abuse are handled by different teams, I am not hopeful that any of them will deal with this complaint.
The last thing Facebook wants is to give out email addresses and receive messages like mine. If each member sends an email to Facebook once every three years, Facebook employees would need to process nearly a million messages every day.
They can't be fined for allowing someone to post information. If someone graffitis a building, the owner is not at fault.
Also, they are a US company, so no one gives a crap what the UK thinks about the process (and I speak as a former Brit).
Any complaint you have about the poster in that context should be taken up with relevant authorities, naming that poster, not FB.
Facebook allowed people to post nudity pictures and that should not be ok at all, there is many young Facebook users who sees naked pictures and others who does not want Facebook account because of that!!!! Facebook need to have a clean system and not allow anyone to post naked picture or any nudity things! Fix this problem as soon as possible, so that we may continue to communicate with friends and family without worry about stupid post that does not belong there!
Does anyone know if Facebook will search the archive of a poster? My daughter is being harassed by someone posting about her & then taking it down before she has the ability to report.
I'm trying to find out how you can file a complaint also when this happens. I was going to mail a letter directly to the office but can't find a mailing address.
I would be cursious to know if anything can be done with similar problem. Daughter was threatened, that she would be harmed, in to sending a young boy a nude picture (top half) and she innocently did. A couple of months later he posted it on facebook, a friend of mine saw it, by the time we decided to report it, it was taken down. I am so so angry with myself as I am almost always vigilant in keeping an eye on her facebook, friends etc. Is there anyway we can back track and recover this data/photos.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/computer-programmers/... many complaints can be found on this site about odesk employees not doing their jobs. Personally it should be facebook employees who do the jobs and follow the terms to the T. photoshopping is not allowed supposedly so why are there pictures of a 5 year old sick girl all over facebook that have been reported over and over and still not removed? Then, let's take the alltime report, Mark Fuckerberg which mocks facebook CEO mark zuckerberg. With that page up there, it kinds tells you that facebook is NOT serious about combatting abuse like their recent big public media show.
I have just watched a video of a man beating up his 1 year old son and it looks like the mother is filming this. There is also another sibling in the house. I have reported this video on facebook but how do I know if this was investigated and not just removed.
That's horrific! I similarly just reported a video of a woman beating a baby. I'm pretty shaken up about having seen that.
To see the information on your report go to Account Settings > Support Dashboard (located on the left hand panel once in Account Settings). There you can see pending requests and resolved complaints. With the resolved complaints it gives you information as to what was done about your complaint.
Hope this helps. I also hope that facebook did in fact follow up on the video.
hey what if a post of me haveing sex was posted , yes I knew it was filmed but then she posted it on internet , is that legal
Of course, you shouldn't forget that just because there's content that you might feel is abusive or offensive that Facebook's team will agree with you.
seems facebook agree that a video that shows Africans being BEATEN and BURNED ALIVE should be allowed to remain on the site.
I reported this video FOUR DAYS ago and the response I got was:
"Thanks for your report. We reviewed the video you reported, but found it doesn't violate Facebook's Community Standard on graphic violence, which includes depicting harm to someone or something, threats to the public's safety, or theft and vandalism."
Even though the video clearly shows the people being beaten and burned alive - I must conclude that the person that reviewed the post must like that kind of thing.
The video is here but I would ask you not to view it. Its very graphic. But not graphic enough for Facebook, apparently :(
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=506359242767...
Facebook has destroyed many peoples lives - IT should be destroyed. Absolute worst invention that has ever and will ever, come into ours and anyones lives. I have nothing but hatred for the social media. Many many beautiful people have had their lives totally turned around because of it. Many many beautiful people have lost their lives because of it.
Our family has deleted all facebook accounts and we are slowly spreading the word and encouraging others to follow!!
That's the funniest damned thing I've read on this website...
Well I was recently harrassed by a guy who used my pictures n turned them into vulgar ones. I reported him n I'm so scared of my society now. I deleted my account n never wish to be in such a situation ever again. Since I'm absent on d site I also fear dat he might use my picture n make fake accounts n deface me...all in all I'm a scared wreck at present....so help plz?
Someone took a pic of me and made a vulgar graphic and is sharing it around but every time I report it to facebook it says the author of the content has removed it. But it is still there. How do they not see it? Do these hackers ban FB IPs? Its ridiculous!