Facebook offers up first-ever estimate of hate speech prevalence on its platform

Facebook Inc for the first time on Thursday disclosed numbers on the prevalence of hate speech on its platform, saying that out of every 10,000 content views in the third quarter, 10 to 11 included hate speech.

The world’s largest social media company, under scrutiny over its policing of abuses, particularly around November’s U.S. presidential election, released the estimate in its quarterly content moderation report.

Facebook said it took action on 22.1 million pieces of hate speech content in the third quarter, about 95% of which was proactively identified, compared to 22.5 million in the previous quarter.

The company defines ‘taking action’ as removing content, covering it with a warning, disabling accounts, or escalating it to external agencies.