Mark Zuckerberg is facing the European Parliament on Tuesday, answering yet more questions about how his company will tackle a scandal over the improper use of Facebook members' data.

It's one of several crises engulfing the company in recent months, from Russian propaganda to hate speech.

In an effort to answer concerns, he will once again turn to the fact Facebook has been hiring people in droves.

http://www.belmadeng.com/2018/05/whos-policing-facebook.html

Thousands of new workers, taken on to add a human touch to a moderation and verification processes that aren't yet sophisticated enough to solve the problem with computing power alone. The company said it now has 15,000 people involved in the community safety effort, well on the way to its stated aim of 20,000.

That's double what it had this time last year. Tasked with being the defensive line against some of Facebook's worst actors, this team wields significant power - and some see it as imperative that it is representative of the communities most at risk online.

"It is absolutely critical to have diverse moderators and to know the level of diversity within your moderation team," said Brandie Nonnecke, director at the CITRUS Tech for Social Good Program at the University of California.

"The more diverse your moderators, the more collectively informed they will be on the nuanced norms underpinning what is and is not considered hate speech among diverse participants on Facebook."

No diversity data
So who are they?
It's hard to find out, thanks to the complexity of how Facebook has set about employing thousands of people in a hurry.

The 15,000 it has hired so far aren't just those removing posts - known as content reviewers - but also engineers, data analysts, and a host of other related jobs. Content reviewers so far make up at least 7,500 - the frontline staff that make the initial decision on what stays up and what comes down, if artificial intelligence hasn't caught it first.

Most - Facebook wouldn't say exactly how many - are not full-time Facebook employees. Instead, the company uses several contracting firms to fill the roles, namely Accenture, Arvato and the Consolidated Contractors Company, known as CCC.

http://www.belmadeng.com/2018/05/whos-policing-facebook.html