Coronavirus is spreading from person to person, and person to Facebook, with its anti-spam system marking articles on the topic as spam.
A number of users from both Facebook and Instagram report that after sharing news about the pandemic from reputable sources, they have inbox emails from Facebook about the spam they’d shared and their article’s removal. “We’ve restored all the posts that were incorrectly removed, which included posts on all topics — not just those related to COVID-19,” Facebook Integrity Vice President Guy Rosen announced.
What caused the Facebook anti-spam system to flag coronavirus articles?
Facebook’s anti-spam system went wrong in removing both coronavirus articles and those on other topics. The reason, though, comes down to the coronavirus pandemic.
In this current climate, major tech companies (and smaller ones, too) are practicing social distancing. Social distancing mandates that employees working in the office go home and remain there. Facebook is sending home a large number of employees to work remotely. Human reviewers of Facebook content are now unable to work in-office. What this means is that the site’s anti-spam system, once a human endeavor, is now under the control of automated machine entirely.
Machines can go wrong. It happens all the time. And so, the company’s anti-spam system started marking articles as violating site rules when they, in fact, did not. This error is most likely due to Facebook’s desire to combat false coronavirus information and steer users to solid, valid resources. When humans are zealous, their zeal can cause them to err. The same is especially true of programmable machines.
Facebook’s anti-spam system: faster than YouTube though with error
Facebook’s anti-spam system appears to be quick in its content review. This is in contrast to Google’s YouTube, which says the coronavirus pandemic will affect video reviews, approval times, and review appeals.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Google is sending its YouTube employees home for social distancing to combat the spread of COVID-19. YouTube video reviews are a mix of machine (algorithms) and man. With humans heading home, though, YouTube video reviews are turning fully automated.
Google has told video creators they shouldn’t panic over content removal. Automation may remove content that lies within platform rules. Machines are not people. They will not operate as people do. Humans will review video content and appeals when returning to work. There’s little word on when that will be, however.
The coronavirus pandemic is causing companies to send employees home. Even in the tech space, social distancing is the order of the day. Machines are now left to take up the technological “torch”. To err is human and to forgive is divine, but machines in light of coronavirus are starting to challenge that notion.