Meta purged over 21 million pieces of bad content on Facebook, Instagram in India in May 2024

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has released its monthly compliance report detailing its efforts to moderate harmful content on its platforms in India. The report reveals a significant crackdown during May, with millions of pieces of content removed for violating the company's policies.

In May alone, Meta took action against over 15.6 million pieces of content on Facebook and more than 5.8 million pieces on Instagram in India. These actions were taken across 13 policy areas for Facebook and 12 for Instagram.

According to Meta's report, which adheres to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, Facebook received 22,251 reports through its Indian grievance mechanism in May. The company provided self-service tools to address 13,982 of these reports, while the remaining 8,269 required specialised review.

"Of the other 8,269 reports where specialised review was needed, we analysed content as per our policies and took action on 5,583 complaints in total. The remaining 2,686 grievances were reviewed but may not have been actioned," Meta explained.

On Instagram, the platform received 14,373 reports through its Indian grievance mechanism. Similar to Facebook, 7,300 reports were addressed using self-service tools, while the remaining 7,073 required specialised review.

"Of the other 7,073 reports where the specialised review was needed, Meta analysed the content and took action on 4,172 complaints in total," stated the report. 2,901 reports underwent review but may not have resulted in further action.

Meta clarified its approach to content moderation, stating, "We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action for going against our standards. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning."