Social media companies have stepped up both the speed and number of removals of hate speech on their platforms, according to the latest EU evaluation of the voluntary code of conduct agreed with the sector.
The evaluation conducted by NGOs and public bodies in 24 EU countries found that amount of notifications received from users that were reviewed by the social networks within 24 hours improved to 51 percent over the past six months, compared to 40 percent at the last evaluation published in December 2016. However, Facebook was the only company to reach the target of reviewing a majority of user notifications within 24 hours of reception.
The latest evaluation also found that the sites took down 59 percent of content signaled by users, more than twice the 28 percent recorded six months ago.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft last year signed up to the voluntary code of conduct with the EU. Facebook and Twitter both showed progress compared to the previous evaluation, but YouTube slowed down, reviewing only 42.6 percent of notifications in less than 24 hours, down from 60.8 percent in December, the results showed.
The European Commission's justice department noted in a statement that the sites had become better at handling notifications from the general public. However, they still tend to remove less content based on public feedback than when the notification comes from a trusted reporting channel. The Commission said the sites could also improve their feedback to users on why content is removed.
The latest report may stave off calls for legislation to combat online hate speech in countries such as the UK and Germany, as the report shows the voluntary agreement is leading to progress. Sites such as YouTube have also faced increased pressure from advertisers in recent months to remove offensive content more quickly.
