Meta is gradually rolling out alerts for users to let them know when their posts have been removed by an automated system. The alerts, which the company began testing last year, are a response to a recommendation from the Oversight Board, related to a case in which a breast cancer awareness post was automatically removed.
"The detection and removal of this post was entirely automated," the Board wrote at the time. "Enforcement which relies solely on automation without adequate human oversight also interferes with freedom of expression."
In its fourth-quarter report on the Oversight Board's progress, published Tuesday, Meta said it tested the alerts to see what impact they would have on user behavior and has now decided to expand them "in certain locations."
Facebook had initially urged the Board not to review the breast cancer post, since it had already reinstated it before the Board took up the case. But the Board members decided to review it anyway, arguing that the decisions that Facebook's systems make automatically, and the processes by which they're allowed to make those decisions, warrant scrutiny.
"Facebook’s decision to restore the content also does not make this case moot, as the company claims," the Board wrote at the time. "The incorrect removal of this post indicates the lack of proper human oversight which raises human rights concerns."
The Board encouraged Meta to give users whose posts have been taken down entirely by automated systems a way to appeal to actual humans.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE