Facebook opens up about efforts to scrub offensive content

Facebook believes its policing system is better at scrubbing graphic violence, gratuitous nudity and terrorist propaganda from its social network than it is at removing racist, sexist and other hateful remarks polluting its influential service.

The self-assessment came Tuesday in Facebook’s first breakdown of how much material it removes in an effort to shield its 2.2 billion users from offensive content and prevent the social network from becoming a terrorist recruitment center.

The increased transparency comes as the Menlo Park, California, company tries to make amends for a privacy scandal triggered by loose policies that allowed a data-mining company with ties to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign to harvest personal information on about 87 million users.

Facebook’s policing efforts are aimed at maintaining a family-friendly atmosphere for users and advertisers.