platform in the April-September period, up from
13 million in the previous six months. It says the
increase was due to improvements in detection.
In addition, Facebook said it removed 11.4
million instances of hate speech during the
period, up from 7.5 million in the previous six
months. The company says it is beginning to
remove hate speech proactively, the way it does
with some extremist content, child-exploitation
and other material.
Facebook expanded the data it shares on its
removal of terrorist propaganda. Its earlier
reports only included data on al-Qaida, ISIS and
their affiliates. The latest report shows Facebook
detects material posted by non-ISIS or al-Qaida
extremist groups at a lower rate than those
two organizations.
The report is Facebook’s fourth on standards
enforcement and the first to include data
from Instagram in areas such as child nudity,
illicit firearm and drug sales, and terrorist
propaganda. The company said it removed 1.3
million instances of child nudity and child sexual
exploitation from Instagram during the reported
period, much of it before people saw it.