Facebook Steps up Security Measures, Targets 3,000 Recruitment

Emma Okonji

Following recent reported cases of assassination, threat to lives and bullying on the Facebook online platform, its Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced new measures that will further beef up security on the social media platform.

Zuckerberg also announced plans to employ 3,000 community operators globally in the next one year.
In a statement, which was made available to the media, Zuckerberg said over the last few weeks, we have seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook, either live or in video posted later. It is heartbreaking, and I have been reflecting on how we can do better for our community.

“If we are going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly. We are working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner, whether that means responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down” Zuckerberg said.

He said over the next year, 3,000 people would be added to our “community operations team around the world, on top of the 4,500 we have today, in order to review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly.”

These reviewers, he added: ”Will also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation. We will keep working with local community groups and law enforcement agencies who are in the best position to help someone if they need it, especially they are about to harm themselves, or when they are in danger from someone else.”

In addition to investing in more people, we are also building better tools to keep our community safe. We are going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement agents if someone needs help. As these become available they should help make our community safer, Zuckerberg pledged.
According to him, the security measures became necessary, following recent reported cases of assassination and suicide on the Facebook platform.

Just last week, we got a report that someone was considering suicide and made the suicide post threat on the Facebook platform. We immediately reached out to law enforcement agents and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself. But in similar cases, we were not so fortunate, as some people have had cause to take their lives, after announcing it on the Facebook platform. No one should be in this kind of situation in the first place, but if they are, then we should build a safe community that provides them the help they need, Zuckerberg said.

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