Failures in Hate Speech Regulation by Meta and X Raise Concerns Ahead of German Elections
Accountability group reveals serious shortcomings in the platforms' ability to manage extremist content.
In a recent evaluation, corporate accountability group Ekō discovered significant failures by social media platforms Meta and X to adequately moderate hate speech advertisements as Germany approaches an important election.
The investigation involved the submission of ten ads that explicitly contained extremist hate speech, incitements to violence, and AI-generated imagery, all of which contravene established guidelines for ad approval.
The submitted advertisements included harmful calls for the imprisonment and extermination of immigrants, suggestions to burn mosques, and dehumanizing language that compared immigrants to animals and pathogens.
Graphic AI-generated images showcased violent themes, such as depictions of immigrants in a gas chamber and synagogues engulfed in flames.
The ads were submitted from February 10 to February 14 and were geo-restricted for targeting users in Germany, appearing in the German language.
Within 12 hours of submission, Meta's systems had approved half of the ads for publication, while X opted to schedule all submissions for release.
However, before the advertisements went live, Ekō's researchers took action to remove them, preventing exposure to users on both platforms.
Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, along with X, is a signatory to the EU Code of Conduct aimed at countering illegal hate speech online.
This Code was recently revised and is now integrated under the Digital Services Act (DSA), mandating signatories to proactively identify and mitigate illegal hate speech on their platforms.
The Commission has been alerted to this latest research, which adds to their ongoing investigation into Meta and X regarding compliance with DSA regulations.
This incident underscores the ongoing challenges faced by social media companies in effectively monitoring and controlling hate speech proliferation, raising broader concerns about the impact of such content on democratic processes and public discourse.
The investigation involved the submission of ten ads that explicitly contained extremist hate speech, incitements to violence, and AI-generated imagery, all of which contravene established guidelines for ad approval.
The submitted advertisements included harmful calls for the imprisonment and extermination of immigrants, suggestions to burn mosques, and dehumanizing language that compared immigrants to animals and pathogens.
Graphic AI-generated images showcased violent themes, such as depictions of immigrants in a gas chamber and synagogues engulfed in flames.
The ads were submitted from February 10 to February 14 and were geo-restricted for targeting users in Germany, appearing in the German language.
Within 12 hours of submission, Meta's systems had approved half of the ads for publication, while X opted to schedule all submissions for release.
However, before the advertisements went live, Ekō's researchers took action to remove them, preventing exposure to users on both platforms.
Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, along with X, is a signatory to the EU Code of Conduct aimed at countering illegal hate speech online.
This Code was recently revised and is now integrated under the Digital Services Act (DSA), mandating signatories to proactively identify and mitigate illegal hate speech on their platforms.
The Commission has been alerted to this latest research, which adds to their ongoing investigation into Meta and X regarding compliance with DSA regulations.
This incident underscores the ongoing challenges faced by social media companies in effectively monitoring and controlling hate speech proliferation, raising broader concerns about the impact of such content on democratic processes and public discourse.
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