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In 2020, Meta registered 2.44 billion users in the world.
The number of active monthly users of Facebook projected for the year 2025 is approximately 2.2 billion.
Today social networks have influenced many factors in people’s lives thanks to the scope they have. this thursdays Meta, owner of Facebook, published its first annual report on human rights, after years of accusations that he turned a blind eye to online abuse that fueled real-world violence in places like India and Myanmar.
With the use of social networks around the world, various complaints from people have arisen where these platforms are involved in fueling many existing problems. That is why several specialists detail that human dignity can be affected when whoever has personal information publishes this data on social networks, humiliating and offending someone.
Before that, in 1968, The United Nations issued a Resolution on the dangers arising from the use of new technologies and the protection ofhe fundamental rights such as honor and privacy, where the conclusion was reached to seek to study the dangers that it represented for human rights.
Meta and its first human rights report
According to the platform founded by Mark Zuckerberg, the report, covers due diligence conducted in 2020 and 2021, includes a summary of a controversial human rights impact assessment of India which Meta commissioned the law firm Foley Hoag to do.
On several occasions, human rights groupsincluding Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, they have demanded the publication of India’s assessment in its entirety, accusing Meta of stalling.
Meta that registers total revenues, most of which come from the sale of ads, increased to 33 thousand 670 million dollars in the fourth quarter, He assured that the law firm had “observed the potential for its platforms to connect with high-profile human rights risks caused by third parties.”including “hate advocacy that incites hostility, discrimination, or violence.”
Likewise, said evaluation, he added, “did not cover the accusations of partiality in the moderation of the content.” For years, rights groups have sounded the alarm about anti-Muslim hate speech fueling tensions in India.the largest Meta market worldwide by number of users, where according to a report by We Are Social and Hootsuite for January 2020 the figure was 2.44 billion in the world.
Its top public policy executive in India is reported to have resigned in 2020 after the Wall Street Journal reported that she was opposed to applying company rules to Hindu nationalist figures internally singled out for promoting violence.
In its report, Meta said it was studying India’s recommendations, but did not commit to implementing them as it did with other rights assessments.
When asked about the difference, Meta’s human rights director, Miranda Sissons pointed out the United Nations guidelines that warn against the risks for “affected stakeholders, staff, or legitimate business confidentiality requirements.”
“The format of the reports can be influenced by a variety of factors, including security reasons,” Sissons told US media.
Sissons, who joined the company in 2019, said his team it is now made up of eight people, while another hundred work on human rights with related teams. In addition to country-level assessments, the report outlined his team’s work on Meta’s Covid-19 response and Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses, which involves pinpointing potential privacy risks and effects on vulnerable groups.
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