Executives at Meta have admitted that the company has inadvertently gone overboard with moderating content on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.
Driving the news: A growing number of users have been complaining on social media about their accounts being suspended, even over something as silly as mentioning saltine crackers in a post — an instance that was common enough to be dubbed “crackergate.”
- A reporter at The Verge was recently banned for being a child. Another user was locked out of her account after joking she “want[ed] to die” because of a heatwave.
Why it matters: After spending many years and billions of dollars trying to rein in harmful posts and disinformation on its platforms, Meta’s moderation efforts have seemingly swung too far.
- Meta’s own Oversight Board warned the company that its moderation issues would risk the excessive removal of political content during this year’s U.S. election.
What’s next: The company says it will tweak its system to apply penalties like account removals only to repeat offenders, though its efforts to be increasingly apolitical are likely to affect its moderation philosophy going forward.—LA