The amount of sexually exploitative content related to children that were actioned by Instagram shot up in November, according to Meta's latest compliance report released on December 30, 2021. The increase was ten-fold from 1,75,800 of such content being actioned in October to 1.2 million of such content being actioned in the subsequent month. Over 424 user grievances were received by Instagram while Facebook saw 519 user grievances through the IT Rules-mandated redressal mechanisms, the report added. Under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics code) Rules 2021, significant social media intermediaries (like Meta's platforms) have to publish periodic reports on the number of user grievances they received, action taken, and the number of content proactively removed by the companies. In November, WSJ first reported that Facebook knew details about how using Instagram adversely impacts the mental health of its teenage users. Soon after, Facebook paused its plans for rolling out an Instagram version exclusively for kids. The amount of content actioned by Facebook dips in comparison Across most content categories, the number of content actioned by Facebook saw declines with slight changes in the proactive rates as well. However, an exception to the trend was content related to firearms, where the proactive rate reduced from 88.3% removals in October to 60% in November. The number of links on Facebook related to firearms dropped from 6,800 to 2,900. According to Meta, 'content actioned' means that a photo, video, or text post was removed, covered with a warning label, or otherwise actioned. Meanwhile,…
