More than 180,000 pieces of content were removed from Facebook and Instagram Pages and accounts specific to Australia last year for violating Meta’s Community Standards for being harmful health misinformation.
It should be noted that the figure of 180,000 was up from 110,000 in 2020.
Meta said Australians benefited from the content it removed from other nations as well, with a total of 11 million people affected globally.
The data was revealed in a Meta transparency report centred on Australia and released by the Digital Industry Group (DIGI) as part of its oversight of the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation.
Meta reported over 3.5 million visits from Australian users in the fourth quarter of 2021 to an information hub dedicated to Covid-19 on its platforms. From the start of the pandemic until June 2021, it has removed over 3,000 accounts, pages and groups for violating its rules against spreading Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation.
It also said some commentators have expressed concerns that the social media spreads
misinformation while also fostering echo chambers and polarisation.
The report also noted that academic research on the role of algorithms in political and social polarization has yielded conflicting results, with many studies indicating that social media is not the primary cause of polarisation.
“Nonetheless, Meta aims to provide greater transparency and control for users around how algorithms rank and distribute content. To this end, we have included an additional commitment to provide transparency of the work we do here,” Meta added.
It is noteworthy that Google, Microsoft, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Redbubble (an online marketplace for print-on-demand products) joined DIGI’s voluntary code of behaviour to fight the spread of disinformation in Australia in February 2021.
However, since its inception, the code has gained two more signatories which are Adobe and Apple.
It should be noted that signatories to the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation have committed to measures to combat online falsehood, including publishing and adopting policies on their approach and allowing users to report content that may contravene those policies.
Part of the code’s pledge is the publication of transparency reports on each company’s activities on their individual platforms.
DIGI said: “If we can increase understanding of these complex challenges over time, then industry, government, civil society and academics can all continuously improve their policies and approaches.”
DIGI managing director Sunita Bose reportedly said the code promotes greater transparency and public accountability in tech efforts to combat harmful misinformation, and DIGI looks forward to collaborating with the incoming administration and others to maximise its effectiveness.
“The 2021 transparency reports provide new data on misinformation in Australia, and the many interventions to remove and flag fake claims and accounts, elevate reputable content and partner with researchers,” she added.
Other Platforms
According to Google’s report, the tech giant removed over 90,000 YouTube videos in Australia that violated its community guidelines, and over 5,000 videos were uploaded from Australia that contained dangerous or misleading Covid-19 information.
Additionally, the number of Australian medical misinformation videos removed from TikTok increased dramatically in 2021, with only 24 removed in January and over 4,000 removed in September.
TikTok reportedly stated the rise in medical misinformation removals coincided with factors directly related to Covid-19 such as the arrival of the Delta strain, and government-initiated infection-management measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, and the parallel rollout of the vaccination programme.
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