External auditors to evaluate our content review process: Facebook

Facebook has said it will go through an independent third-party audit to validate the numbers and metrics it publishes in its Community Standards Enforcement Report.

The company is issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP) to external auditors to conduct an independent audit of these metrics.

"We hope to conduct this audit starting in 2021 and have the auditors publish their assessments once completed," said Vishwanath Sarang, Technical Programme Manager, Integrity.

Facebook said it has been working with auditors internally to assess how the metrics it reports can be audited most effectively.

"Transparency is only helpful if the information we share is useful and accurate. In the context of the Community Standards Enforcement Report, that means the metrics we report are based on sound methodology and accurately reflect what's happening on our platform," Sarang said in a blog post on Tuesday.

"We want people to be confident that the numbers we report around harmful content are accurate, so we will undergo an independent, third-party audit, starting in 2021, to validate the numbers we publish in our Community Standards Enforcement Report," added Guy Rosen, VP Integrity at Facebook.

Over a year ago, Facebook worked with international experts in measurement, statistics, law, economics and governance to provide an independent, public assessment of whether the metrics it shares in the enforcement report provide accurate and useful measures of Facebook's content moderation challenges.

"They broadly agreed that we are looking at the right metrics and provided some recommendations for improvement including launching appeals reporting," Sarang said.

--IANS

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