The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has officially appealed to the American corporation Meta Platforms with a request to improve the quality of moderation so that publications of Ukrainians are no longer hidden, and their accounts are not blocked unreasonably. This was announced by the Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov.
It is no secret that the Meta moderation system, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, as well as the WhatsApp messenger, broken has not yet coped with Russian propaganda and bots – since the beginning of a full-scale war, Ukrainian users have been massively faced with the problem of blocking posts and accounts on social networks. And now this problem is particularly acute. The last time we returned to the discussion of this important topic was in May, when Mikhail Fedorov met with Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg and, among other things, discussed the acute blocking of Ukrainian content on Facebook and Instagram – then we were promised that the situation would soon improve, however there are still no noticeable changes in the moderation system.
The Mintsifra said that they are in touch with Meta, which even assigned a separate team for this in order to quickly respond to requests for unreasonable blocking of Ukrainian content. Almost all of these requests receive a positive decision – the accounts of activists, volunteers, bloggers are unblocked (the Ministry of Digital Development says that in recent months they have helped to unblock dozens of pages of public people), but this does not change anything globally, the ministry notes.
“We are in a brutal war, so it is unfair to moderate Ukrainian content according to peacetime rules.
Social media is designed to tell the truth. Millions of Ukrainians have united since the first day of the war and act as a united information front. They spread news on social networks, raise funds for the army, doctors and people who have lost everything. Every activist, blogger, volunteer uses their trust and reputation for a good cause.”
Mikhail Fedorov,
Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
On July 28, the Ministry of Digital Transformation once again turned to Meta regarding the massive blocking of posts and accounts of bloggers, the media community, activists and ordinary users on Facebook and Instagram social networks. An official letter (copy below) with a request to improve the processes of moderation of Ukrainian content, signed by Mikhail Fedor, was addressed to Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs of Meta Corporation.
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Why this happens (blocking content on Facebook and Instagram is blocked) has already been explained many times. There are two main reasons:
- the first is the automatic algorithms of social networks that need to be changed, and the problem of the quality of content moderation from Ukraine as such (the company’s content policy is not adapted to the realities of the war in Ukraine).
- the second is the excessive activity of Russian bots, massively complaining about publications.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation also urged Meta to share its own moderation rules for the Ukrainian region with Ukrainian users. This will help you better understand what content the moderation system perceives as dangerous and will help you avoid mass blocking.
Let’s hope that Meta finally takes notice of this serious problem and devotes more resources to create more effective mechanisms to counter Russian propaganda and bots. Yes, and others will not stand aside – yes, Google, it’s time to finally open a YouTube office in Ukraine.
#YouTubeKyiv. Ukrainian bloggers complained that the Ukrainian segment of YouTube is run by a “Moscow office” and urged Google to open an office in Kyiv as soon as possible
