Facebook adds migrants to hate speech protection list

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the site needs to do a "better job" of policing hate speech.

Speaking at an event in Berlin, Zuckerberg claimed there was "still work to do" and said Facebook was "committed to doing better". 

His comments follow meetings with German chancellor Angela Merkel and her chief of staff. 

German authorities have reportedly been "concerned about racist abuse" on Facebook following an increase in the number of migrants and refugees entering the country.

Meeting with authorities "really highlighted how much more we needed to do in this country," Zuckerberg said.

"Hate speech has no place on Facebook and in our community," he said. "Until recently in Germany, I don't think we were doing a good enough job. And I think we will continue needing to do a better and better job." Facebook would now add migrants to its list of "protected groups", Zuckerberg said.

In September 2015 German Chancellor Angela Merkel was overheard confronting Mark Zuckerberg on how the company wasn't doing enough to crack down on racist posts on the website. German prosecutors have also launched investigations into Facebook's alleged failure to remove racist hate speech.

Earlier this year, during a Select Committee at the House of Commons, a Facebook spokesperson said the site had "worked very hard to disrupt" hate speech on its network.

Facebook defines hate speech as "direct and serious attacks on any protected category of people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or disease", but exact figures as to how much takes place on its network have never been published.

A 2012 report from the Council of Europe claimed there were around "14,00 problematic social network groups, forums, blogs, Twitter accounts comprised on the subculture of hate", though again this fails to take into consideration individual hate speech which occurs on sites such as Facebook.

"One reason behind the difficulty in obtaining accurate statistics is the fact that hate speech is rarely confined to easily identifiable 'hate sites'" the report noted.

As well as hate speech by its users, Facebook has also been dealing with its own free speech controversies. In an internal memo sent out to Facebook employees last week, Zuckerberg criticised employees who crossed out "black lives matter" and added "all lives matter" on a wall inside the company

Source: Wired UK