The moderation of platforms in the viewfinder

Audio 02:45

the giants of the web can no longer shirk their responsibility.

The European Commission, which is preparing a law on digital services for December, has already indicated that platforms will have to cooperate with regulators.

CC0 Pixabay / LoboStudioHamburg

By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow

6 min

The moderation of social networks and online platforms is increasingly questioned and criticized by citizens and political power.

Publicity

The tweet was removed, the account even deleted, but the post from the former Malaysian prime minister had time to travel around the world on Twitter.

" 

he said, "

 ."

At 95, Mahathir Mohamad was the Prime Minister of Malaysia twice, for a period of 24 years, until last February.

He was therefore followed by 1.3 million people on the social network.

It took the intervention of Cédric O, the French Secretary of State for Digital, for Twitter to delete his account, even though his genocidal message had until then been maintained with a warning.

This shows how difficult it is for internet platforms to regulate inflammatory messages calling for hatred.

An American researcher, Sarah T. Roberts, has just published in French

, a book in which she explains that Facebook, Twitter or Instagram sell us the vision of an automated moderation based on keywords and

.

In reality, she says, " 

 " sold to the public " 

 ".

15,000 moderators at Facebook

Because to remove the most violent messages taking into account the context, humor or possible irony, you always need a human eye.

On Facebook, there is an army of 15,000 moderators who must endure seeing the worst in trying conditions.

They must both censor what crosses the bounds of the acceptable and let pass what may shock but falls within the scope of freedom of expression and makes it possible to capture the brain time available to the Internet user.

Sometimes, as we have seen during the American campaign, moderation becomes a real editorial censor.

The bosses of Twitter and Facebook were summoned by Republican senators for blocking an article in the

which reported

, the son of the Democratic candidate, about his business in Ukraine.

The visibility of the article had been reduced because the two platforms did not believe in the veracity of these emails.

What is certain is that the giants of the web can no longer shirk their responsibility.

The European Commission, which is preparing a law on digital services for December, has already indicated that platforms will have to cooperate with regulators, provide information on their algorithms and tell users how their content recommendation system and moderation work.

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