User grievances reported to photo-sharing platform Instagram saw a rise of over 50% to 13,869 in May 2022, according to the Meta's compliance report released on 30th June. The report, released for both Facebook and Instagram, showed that the former saw a 26% rise in user grievances to 835, from 661 in April. Both platforms responded to a 100% of such grievances, the report says. 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. Apart from the increase in user complaints, in content actions and detection the report shows there was an increase in number of hate speech related content actions as well as proactive removal on Facebook, four-fold increase in violent and graphic content actions on Instagram, among other things. Why it matters? Numbers related to content detection and removals, as shown in such compliance reports, show content moderation trends on these platforms. This gains particular importance in Meta's case as leaked documents have shown that its platforms may have not done enough on those counts previously. It is also important to note that the IT Rules were enacted on 26th May, 2021. The rise in the number of user grievances reported to the two platforms, particularly Instagram, could signal greater adoption as well as awareness of the IT Rules as they complete…
