Meta moderation tools on Instagram and Threads have bugs that delete and block accounts

Meta is investigating some Bugs identified in their content moderation tools for Instagram and Threads that are causing the account deletion and content blocking wrongly classified as false or controversial.

The company has a series of solutions moderation for their social networks, with which review the posts that users share in order to ensure that the content published Comply with your community standards and usage policies.

These moderation tools are supervised by internal Meta teams who also work with external partners globally to obtain advice and analyze possible actions, as detailed on its Transparency Center page.

With this, they review and analyze the publications to identify issues such as whether they are falseif they contain misinformation or if they promote harmful actions for users. Likewise, they also try to protect minor users with measures that corroborate the age of the users so that, if they are under 16 years old, they can use adolescent accounts appropriate to their age.

In this way, as detailed in Instagram’s Community Standards, the company intends prevent the viralization of false or erroneous content to prevent users from being deceived, for example, when sharing political content. Likewise, they also try to eradicate spam.

Likewise, they promote a safe space free of violent posts that promote hateful actions or that may pose a danger to users, such as ‘bullying’harassment, threats or other content that “may silence other users.” Likewise, they pursue publications that are inappropriate for a “diverse audience,” such as the nude content.

However, when Meta identifies a post or account that violates these rules through its moderation tools, it can take action. block the account, delete posts or limit the display of content in the ‘feed’, among other measures.

However, some users have recently shared cases where content moderation tools on Instagram and Threads are making mistakes. errors that cause deletion or blocking of your accounts without real reasons of non-compliance with community regulations.

This has been detailed by some affected users through posts on Threads, as is the case of the social media analyst. Matt Navarra This has pointed out that Meta classified one of his posts as false information and, consequently, limited displaying your postswhich appear lower in the feed and are not shown to users who do not follow you. In this case, it should be noted that the appeal against these measures was rejected.

On another occasion, Threads briefly locked a user’s account for sharing a post in which this person he joked about wanting to die from a heat wave.

It has also been picked up by The Verge, from where they have pointed out a case in which Meta deleted an Instagram account for, supposedly, belonging to a person minor, even though the profile was properly identified as belonging to an adult through your official identification document. In this case, the user was also unable to appeal Meta’s moderation decision.

In this regard, the Instagram manager, Adam Mosseri, has pointed out through Threads that they are investigating these bugs on both Meta platforms. However, it has not shared more information in this regard, so the causes of these failures in the content moderation tools are unknown.