Meta appointed local experts to prevent hate speech through Facebook in Bangladesh

Facebook has appointed Bangladeshi experts who understand the Bangla language, culture, and market to combat the spread of hate speech and extremist ideology through its platform in the country. As a result, Bangladeshi Facebook users now witnesses whatever that reflects offline realities of the country, Nawab Osman, Asia Pacific head of counter-terrorism and dangerous organisations at Facebook's parent company Meta, has made these remarks in reply to the query from newspersons during a virtual press conference on measures of Meta to fight against terrorism and spread in a virtual meeting, titled 'Fighting Terrorism and Organized Hate and Metas Approach' organized by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, on Monday (June 26) at noon. At this webinar, various steps of the organization against the content violating the meter policy and community standard were also highlighted. Nawab Osman, head of the Meter Counter-Terrorism and Dangerous Organization in the Asia-Pacific region, told the webinar that Bangladeshi 'experts' who understand the Bengali language, culture and market have been hired to tackle the spread of extremist ideology through Facebook in Bangladesh. He said Meta is taking steps to increase tolerance among users and that includes civil society. Meter's own technology and algorithms are playing an important role in this. Mentioning that the offline reality of Bangladesh is being reflected on Facebook, the head of anti-terrorism and dangerous organizations in the Meta Asia Pacific region added, "What is being seen in the case of Bangladesh on our platform is a reflection of the offline reality here." On the webinar, Osman was questioned by journalists about the role of Facebook in the recent communal attacks in Bangladesh. In this case, the question has arisen as to whether Facebook is giving an opportunity to spread hate speech and hatred. In this situation, Nawab Osman said about the role of Facebook and Meter, "What is seen in the case of Bangladesh on our platform is a reflection of the offline reality here (Bangladesh)." He said, 'There are allegations of conducting terrorist activities in Bangladesh using Facebook. Regarding the steps taken by META in this regard, Nawab Osman said that work is underway to strengthen Facebook's program in this regard; Especially at the grassroots level. Experts from Bangladesh are also working for this. Various other programs are being taken. However, he also commented that the meter needs to be more active in this case. Meta is taking various steps to increase tolerance among users and this includes civil society, he said. Meta said 35,000 people work in its security and protection team and the company also has 15,000 content reviewers. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founds Facebook Inc, which was rebranded as Meta in 2021. Facebook has about 45 million users in the country of 160 million people, according to market analyst firm Statista.