Facebook is stepping up moderation against anti-Black hate speech

Facebook has started weighting anti-Black hate speech on its platform as higher priority than hate speech directed at white people, men, and Americans in an effort to address the disproportionate effects such speech has on minority groups, the company tells The Verge.

The result is that Facebook’s automated moderation systems for detecting and taking action against hate speech should now more proactively scan the site for such racist content. Meanwhile, more innocuous forms of hate speech, like those directed at white people or men in general, are deemed lower priority and left alone unless a user reports them. Facebook has internally deemed this approach “WOW,” or “worst of the worst” for the types of behaviors it now wants to focus...

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