Facebook’s Head Of Global Policy Management Talks Boobs, Regulation & Sl*t Shaming
Facebook head of global policy management Monika Bickert held a media roundtable at the social media’s Sydney headquarters on Tuesday to discuss the platform’s regulation.
Bickert spoke mainly about the measures Facebook was taking to make the platform safer, more inclusive and generally better managed, as announced in a report from Facebook last week.
The social media giant’s commitment to stamping out unsavoury content, bullying and harassment has been enacted by removing millions of fake accounts and taking action on 15.4 million pieces of violent and graphic content.
According to Facebook, the move was facilitated by the platform’s “continued improvements in our technology that allows us to automatically apply the same action on extremely similar or identical content.”
However, despite Facebook employing 15,000 reviewers worldwide who manually sieve through reported content, Bickert said defining the explicitness of certain content remains incredibly complex.
In particular, Bickert gave the example of images of women’s breasts.
She said: “We know that for topless images of women; there are safety risks.
“We’ve seen teenagers like Amanda Todd, a young woman from Canada, take her own life after people took a topless image of her and shared it around the internet.
“We know there are safety risks, we also know there are situations where women want to protest topless for a political purpose or share breastfeeding photos or for cancer awareness; how do we allow those but not create safety risks?” Bickert said.
She continued: “A few years ago we had less nuanced policies where we said we’re just going to take a hard line because we can’t do this well.
“Over time we have studied how protest photos look and there’s still a risk here, because people will sometimes share an image of a woman for instance that says something horrible on her chest like ‘slut’ and she’s being shamed and it’s a topless photo and we want to make sure were removing that.
“However, that doesn’t necessarily look that different to a woman who is protesting the way women are being treated and she’s standing out publicly with the same thing written on her chest.”
For Bickert, the challenge has been a huge learning curve, and policies specifically related to showing female breasts have been changed accordingly.
“We’ve got to the point now where we feel like we’re comfortable enough making that distinction so our policies now say ‘women engaged in political protest, cancer awareness and so-fourth; we allow those photos’.
“People will say to us it looks easy why don’t you just allow all content, we ask ourselves, could we write a rule that could be applied by 15,000 every day consistently, the answer is no it’s going to take some time,” Bickert added.
Latest News
3rdspace, Award-Winning Independent Australian Agency, Launches In The UK
Now in its tenth year of business, 3rdspace – the Sydney-based content company – has announced that it is expanding its offer to the UK. This expansion is driven by client demand and favourable growth in content marketing. Founder of 3rdspace, Rob Logan, said, “it’s a strategic move that absolutely enables us to embody agile […]
Monday TV Wrap: MAFS Reunion Finale Dominates Ratings
Sunday night saw MAFS’ finale episode which netted in an impressive 1,398,000 viewers – an increase of 264,000 from Wednesday night’s episode. The extent of Coco and Cam’s affair was revealed, as was the reveal to everyone that Bryce did in fact buy a gift for his proclaimed not-girlfriend outside of the experiment. Perhaps most […]
SBS Retires Iconic ‘The World Game’, ‘Cycling Central’ Brands
SBS will shut down The World Game digital platform, marking an end to the beloved football brand’s legacy that officially began in 2001. The network’s Cycling Central website, which covered the most important news around events on the cycling calendar like the Tour De France, will also come under knife, with both standalone football and […]
The Sydney Morning Herald Marks 190 Years Of Print
New South Wales masthead The Sydney Morning Herald celebrates its 190th anniversary today, as one of the oldest continuously printed metropolitan newspapers in the world. In today’s paper, a souvenir wrap-around will show how The Herald forged trust with generations of Sydneysiders with its quality journalism and unique lens on reporting the life and times […]
Google Considers An Appeal After Federal Court Rules It Misled Australians
Google has said it is considering an appeal, after the Federal Court ruled the tech giant had misled consumers in regards to how it collected location data from Android devices. The decision comes as a major win for the ACCC, which initiated the court proceedings in October 2019. The competition watchdog argued that Google misled […]
Nine Announces Judging Panel For State Of Originality
Nine has named the judging panel for its much-anticipated State of Originality, Australia’s richest advertising award, aimed at making State of Origin the equivalent of Australia’s Super Bowl in advertising terms. Announced at Nine’s Upfront last September, the winning campaign will take home much more than a trophy – there’s $1 million in advertising inventory […]
British Supermarket Begins Court Case Over Copycat Caterpillar Cake
British supermarket Marks & Spencer has taken an intellectual property claim against fellow supermarket ALDI over the latter’s Cuthbert The Caterpillar Cake, which they allege is too similar to their own iconic Colin The Caterpillar Cake. Colin the Caterpillar (pictured above) has been a staple of birthday parties across the UK since 1990, when the […]
DDB Sydney Unveils Australian Red Cross’ First Brand Campaign In Almost A Decade
We all felt helpless in the face of 2020’s constant barrage of disasters and catastrophes. And 2021 hasn’t let up either. Last year, Australian Red Cross experienced its biggest demand since World War II, so it has responded with a new brand campaign bringing attention to this overwhelming feeling and highlighting its 106-year track record […]
“Food Is A Way Of Answering Emotional Questions In Ourselves”: The Masterchef Judges On Season 13
As Master Chef prepares to launch back onto screens on Monday 19th April, B&T had the opportunity to speak to the show’s hosts, food critic Melissa Leong and chefs Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allan, who won the show’s fourth season. The three judges first appeared on last year’s Masterchef: Back To Win, which saw returning contestants […]
Which 50? Has The Datafication Of Advertising Finally Killed Off Adland’s Favourite Slogan?
Undoubtedly one of the most overused slogans in marketing’s and advertising’s history is John Wanamaker’s iconic “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. And it’s a credit to the quip’s longevity that last year the line celebrated a real milestone – its 100th birthday. But […]
Leadership, Humanity, Technology – The Sweet Spot
The SingularityU Australia Executive Program will take place this may, celebrating leadership at the intersection of the values of humanity and the value of technology. The Elon Musks, Apples and Xeros of the world are taking risks for humanity and creating new technologies that streamline and beautify business operations. They simplify life by providing basic […]
OMD Alumnus Launches Specialist Media Agency For The Franchise Sector; TFM Digital
Brisbane media professional and former OMD Australia Account Director Taylor Fielding (pictured) has officially launched TFM Digital. TFM Digital is a specialist media agency based in Newstead which primarily provides media buying services, and strategy development, to businesses chiefly, but not exclusively, within the franchise sector. Prior to the launch of TFM Digital, Fielding spent […]
“Very Creepy”: ABC Forced To Apologise Over Navy Ship Twerking Video
This twerk video has divided the B&T office this morning. By that we mean "hilarious" to "absolutely f@cking hilarious".
Urth Teams Up With Croud To Drive International Growth
The Australian camera accessory brand, Urth, famed for their focus on sustainability, has appointed Croud as their new digital marketing partner, in order to power global and local growth.
VMG Digital And TreSensa Join Forces To Provide Best-Of-Breed Playable Ads
Leading mobile creative technology companies, VMG Digital and TreSensa Technologies, join forces to fuel best-of-breed playable Facebook Ads to help clients drive app installs.
Furphy Celebrates Tellers Of Tall Tales In New ‘Unearthing Unbelievable’ Brand Experience
Eight in ten Aussies (86%)* believe telling a furphy is a unique part of Australian culture, now Furphy is on a mission to celebrate the art of storytelling and uncover the nation’s best furphies.
Know A Standout Marketing Boss? Nominate Them For B&T’s CMO Power List!
B&T's on the hunt for Australia's top marketers! Sure, not as interesting as Australia's top yodellers or log rollers.
Winners! Frocks! Tears! Your Party Pictorial To Last Night’s 30 Under 30!
Judging by the hangovers in the B&T office today you can count yourself damn lucky we even managed this photo thingy.
Publicis Groupe Beats Q1 Expectations, As Aussie Ops Record “Dynamic Organic Growth”
B&T would've added sacre bleu to this Publicis headline, however, we have no idea what it means or how to spell it.
REVEALED: All The Finalists For The 2021 Snapchat Young Lions Competition
There's sure to be some tears with the reveal of the Young Lions competition. Even more so if you actually entered.
Canva Brings Instagram Scheduling To Canva Pro
Canva owners set to become even more obscenely billionairey after doing latest thing.
Getty Images Announces $US85,000 In Grants For Photojournalists
In this day & age of tech behemoths & media barons, it's nice to see the humble old photojournalist getting a look in.
How To Harness The Skills Of A Gen Y & Z workforce To Future-Proof Your Business
Look, it's top tips to harnessing your Gen Y and Z employees sans any Spanish Inquisition torture techniques.
FutureFeed Appoints Five By Five For Global Launch
Launch marketing specialists Five by Five Global have been appointed by FutureFeed to develop their brand, international certification trademark and go to market strategy. The innovative livestock feed ingredient developed by CSIRO, Meat and Livestock Australian and James Cook University uses a specific genus of seaweed, Asparagopsis, which significantly reduces methane emissions in ruminant livestock. […]
Clems Melbourne Announces 10 New Starters
Excellent hair clearly part of the recruitment process, as Clems Melbourne announces 10 new hirsute starters.
Thursday TV Wrap: Gogglebox Continues Rise While Seven Wins The Night
B&T hosted the 30 Under 30 awards last night AND is bringing you last night's telly numbers. Live the lies here.
SKMG’s Andrew Knowles Snares B&T’s 30 Under 30 For PR
Andrew Knowles, partner and co-founder of the corporate communications consultancy Shoebridge Knowles Media Group (SKMG), has won the PR category in the 2021 B&T 30 Under 30 Awards. Knowles received the award at a ceremony in Sydney last night, claiming victory in a highly competitive field that included leading executives from some of Australia’s biggest […]
WPP AUNZ Launches NextGen Leaders Program
WPP AUNZ says its nextgen leaders program isn't solely open to the company's crawlers and sycophants.
JCDecaux Launches Programmatic Offering & Announces Partnership With Adobe, Building A New Digital And Data Ecosystem
JCDecaux announces Adobe partnership. Which, admittedly, isn't as interesting as, say, a Dannii Minogue partnership.
VGood Launches ‘Undercover Healthy’ Creative Campaign
VGood is a "nut-free, chickpea based range of snacks". Absolutely perfect for boring everyone with your dietary habits.
