Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that the organisation scans the contents of messages that people send each other on its Messenger app blocking any that contravene its guidelines.
The scandal-hit firm, still reeling from revelations surrounding Cambridge Analytica, checks images and texts to ensure they are in line with its community standards.  While the intentions behind the practice may be well-meaning, the news is likely to add to users’ concerns over what the social network knows about them. It follows revelations that the Trump-affiliated consulting firm obtained data on at least 50 million unsuspecting Facebook users. This information was used to target voters in the US, based on psychological profiling, with political adverts spreading disinformation.
Facebook is also facing criticism for collecting years of data on call and text histories from Android users. Mark Zuckerberg said “clearly we should have done more, and we will going forward”. During a press conference he said that he had previously assumed that if Facebook gave people tools, it was largely their responsibility to decide how to use them. But he added that it was “wrong in retrospect” to have had such a limited view.
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