> More than seven million "hate speech" posts were removed, also a record high.
This is an example of a statistic designed to show progress without offering insight into the underlying problem, which is the insidious effect social networks have had on civil discourse. Absolute numbers are of little help in judging whether Facebook is actually addressing that issue in a meaningful way. It seems plausible that the main motivation for numbers like these is to fend off legislation to force social networks to take more responsibility for content, which would undermine Facebook's business model.
It's not all that different from the US military using body count numbers as part of propaganda to support continued funding for the Vietnam war. Here's a better reference to the controversy associated with those efforts.
This is an example of a statistic designed to show progress without offering insight into the underlying problem, which is the insidious effect social networks have had on civil discourse. Absolute numbers are of little help in judging whether Facebook is actually addressing that issue in a meaningful way. It seems plausible that the main motivation for numbers like these is to fend off legislation to force social networks to take more responsibility for content, which would undermine Facebook's business model.
It's not all that different from the US military using body count numbers as part of propaganda to support continued funding for the Vietnam war. Here's a better reference to the controversy associated with those efforts.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_body_count_controv...