Never miss an Axios exclusive. Sign up for Mike Allen's AM newsletter.

Stories

Europe says tech companies are removing more hate speech

Matt Rourke / AP

The European Union says platform companies are removing more instances of reported illegal hate speech:

  • Facebook and Google-owned YouTube both removed around 66% of content that they were notified about in a newly-released evaluation of a code of conduct adopted by European regulators and the companies. Richard Allen, Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said in a statement "that our partnership is having a significant positive impact for people in the EU."
  • Twitter, meanwhile, only removed 37.5%. Karen White, Twitter's Head of Public Policy in Europe, said in a statement that the company tries to "to reach the right balance between showing all sides of what's happening and tackling hateful conduct."
Read more toggle
Show less
Keep reading

The bottom line: Every company removed a greater percentage of content than when a similar study was conducted at the end of last year. A top European regulator said, per Reuters, that "we can objectively say that all [the companies involved] have improved." Companies overall also vetted more flagged content within 24 hours than the last time the question was examined.

Why it matters: Platforms are under increasing pressure to deal with problematic content, and there's no sign that it's letting up.

More stories loading.