The core problem with the Facebook platform really has to do with its automated moderation and lack of user support. It would be ideal to solve both of these issues, but if they could fix at least one it would still be an improvement. Facebook’s AI has been tasked with detecting violations of the platform’s community standards, but it struggles with the nuances of the human language and makes a lot of mistakes. The most recent example of this was a group for a gardening club which was recently flagged by Facebook because of its frequent use of the word “hoe.” It’s obvious that Facebook’s moderation jumped the gun on flagging the group because it doesn’t understand the word is harmless when used in its original context.
Compounding these missteps is the fact that Facebook does not make it easy for its users to get help when their account is incorrectly banned or disabled. They are able to appeal a decision made by the platform’s moderation system, but it can take weeks to resolve an issue and is inconsistent. Again, Facebook has relied too much on automation tools to handle its support process, and people are getting “stuck” along the way.
There are a lot of users who have different stories about how they lost their accounts, but these are stories which could have ended differently if Facebook invested a little more resources into human guided moderation and user support.
Have you heard anything back from Facebook as a result of the NPR story?
I had some assistance following the airing/publishing of the story, but I only got as far as a “Your account is under review” message, which is a bit of an improvement, but I’ve been stuck there since then.