Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri, has admitted that the social media platform made a “mistake” by failing to remove racist comments and emojis directed at English forward Bukayo Saka.
The social media company came under immerse criticism when it failed to deal with racial abuse targeted at Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho following their penalty miss at the just ended Euro 2020 final.
Technology reporter at BBC News, Cristiana Criddle, and several users reported comments on Saka’s Instagram as they contained ‘monkey’ emojis. But Instagram believed the content reported did not include any abuse saying: “our technology has not found that this comment probably doesn’t go against our community guidelines”.
In response, Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri, told BBC News that they “mistakenly” identified those comments as within their community guidelines and that the issue has now been resolved.
“We have the technology to try and prioritize reports, and we were mistakenly marking some of these as benign comments, which they are absolutely not,” he told BBC News.
“The issue has since been addressed.
“Reports on these types of comments should [now] be reviewed properly.”
The 19 years old forward, Bukayo Saka has also responded to the racist attacks he suffered on social media last week, labeling it as a “sad reality”. He expressed his gratitude to all who sent him, Marcus, and Sancho heartfelt messages.
“To the social media platforms Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I do not want any child to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that me, Marcus and Jadon have received this week. I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages,” he wrote.
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