It's a story as old as the internet.YouTube and Facebook continue to roll out tools to prevent harmful content, such as hate speech and incitements for violence, from their platforms. However, reports show that people continue to post terrible content.Anti-semitic content is the latest example. Anti-semitism is on the rise all over the globe, which is translating into (and being fueled by!) posts on social media.According to the New York Times, the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League have released two new studies that show that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and Twitch, TikTok and Roblox remove only a small amount of anti-semitic content.The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that Facebook removed only over 10% of the content they had identified, while Twitter took on approximately 11%. YouTube replied to 21%, while TikTok responded to 18%.Although the ADL report contained similar findings, Twitter did better. It gave grades to platforms based upon their response to hate speech reports. Twitter received a B- (congrats!) Facebook, TikTok and Roblox received C- grades. Roblox was given a disappointing D.The ADL director summarized the results for The Times in the following words: "The results are depressing but not surprising."These reports show that users continue to publish content they say is prohibited on social media platforms. The content ranges from hate speech to Covid-19 misinformation and incitements for violence.The Washington Post published a report in July that highlighted how anti-COVID vaccination propaganda and misinformation thrived on YouTube and Facebook. Social platforms have made it a priority to combat this type of content, but content that President Biden called "killing people” is still flourishing.BuzzFeed News published the April results of an internal Facebook report. It detailed how organizers of "Stop the Steal” incited people to violence through Facebook groups and posts that the platform failed to address.Partly due to the hateful rhetoric of Donald Trump, Asians have been subject to a torrent of hate and harassment via social media throughout the pandemic. CNET reported that 17% of Asian Americans claimed they were subject to severe online harassment in January, compared to 11% in the same time last year. This is the highest increase in Asian Americans compared to other groups.SEE ALSO: What happens when you are made the target of racist disinformationAll of these reports fall within the content Facebook bans in its community standards. Posts on social media seem to be linked with real-world violence and death in the cases of antisemitism.Facebook publishes a quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report. This report shows data on the number of reported cases of prohibited content and Facebook's response. According to the most recent May report, hate speech has fallen in the first three months 2021. It is only "0.05-0.06%" or 5 to 6 views for every 10,000 views. Facebook claims that its AI advancements have enabled it to "proactively detect," rather than relying on user reports, 97 percent hate speech content it removes.Recent reports on antisemitic postings show that there are gaps in these numbers. The 97 percent figure refers to posts that social media companies remove, but there are still many posts that non-profit organizations can find (and report). The Center for Countering Digital Hate discovered that 7.3 million people saw the antisemitic posts on the combined platforms.This story isn't less disturbing because we have heard it before. These companies constantly pledge to improve their performance and admit that there is still much to be done. People die in the interim.
