Meta says content controls ramped up for Hamas-Israel conflict

Meta on Friday said it was putting special resources towards cracking down on illegal and problematic content related to the assault by Hamas in Israel and its aftermath.

The announcement came after European regulators sent a warning letter to the Facebook and Instagram owner about the proliferation of disinformation and potentially illegal content being posted on the platforms.

Meta said it had strengthened its content moderation teams and set up a "special operations center" which was working around the clock to monitor and take action on problematic posts in Hebrew and Arabic.

In the three days following the October 7 attack by Hamas into Israel, "we removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic," Meta said in a blog post.

Meta said that Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization in the US and other Western countries, is banned from its platforms and that it was actively removing posts which feature "praise and substantive support" for the organization.

The details of Meta's actions came after the EU gave the social media giant 24 hours to provide details on what they were doing to ensure "illegal content and disinformation" was being removed from their platforms in line with EU law.

A European source said the blog post by Meta was close in spirit to the response they had received from the company, and that was being reviewed by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.

Elon Musk's X had received a similar 24-hour ultimatum earlier this week, and the company's response had failed to satisfy the commission, which on Thursday opened an investigation procedure against the platform.

TikTok was also asked to urgently share its content moderation measures with European authorities.

© 2023 AFP