Facebook to hire 3,000 employees to review content for crime and suicide

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday that the company will hire 3,000 new employees to review its videos for crime and suicides.

The increase comes on top of the 4,500 employees Facebook already has to review content reported to be in violation of the company’s community standards.

The company’s staffing expansion follows a recent murder in Cleveland and murder of a baby in Thailand that were both broadcast on Facebook Live. Numerous individuals had also broadcast their own suicides on the platform.

{mosads}“These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing the new hires.

“And we’ll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it — either because they’re about to harm themselves, or because they’re in danger from someone else,” he continued.

Facebook had received scrutiny last month after BBC and Times of London reports found hate speech along with images and discussion of the exploitation of children in private groups on the website. The news outlets reported the content to Facebook, however much of it wasn’t removed until the publications notified authorities of the content.

Facebook noted after these reports that it was working to improve its response to content in violation of its community standards.

Zuckerberg said that in addition to the new employees, the company is “working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner.” The Facebook CEO said the company is in the process of “building better tools to keep [the Facebook] community safe.”