Facebook includes Instagram in its transparency report for the first time

Notably absent from the report is information on how fake accounts, hate speech, and violent content are regulated on the photo-sharing app.

The last report, released in May, showed a sharp increase in the number of abusive accounts on Facebook, and a downtick in the number of posts containing violent content the company detected and removed.

Last month, the left-leaning human rights group Avaaz reported that stories containing misinformation were viewed almost 158.9 million times on the social network, continuing to spread even after they were proven to be false.

As memes and photos become an even larger component of election interference efforts, Instagram has become a prime target ahead of the 2020 election. The platform also has fewer resources to fight misinformation than Facebook, making the ongoing spread of fake news far more likely.

Its unfortunate that Facebook left out information related to the proliferation of fake accounts on Instagram, particularly since Facebook did share that information on its namesake platform. On Facebook, fake accounts continue to make up about 5 percent of monthly active users and the company catches the majority within minutes of when they register.

Next time, the report might even include critical information on how fake accounts are doing on the platform, as the 2020 election ramps up.

Original article