While Facebook provides a bevy of comment moderation tools, its automated filtering isn’t perfect. Its system relies on keyword-based lists, which really limit how well you can moderate. Facebook’s automated moderating tools may suffice just fine for some, but trolls and spammers are crafty; they know all the tricks for bypassing most automated systems.
Let’s go over some of the biggest issues with native comment moderation—and how you can break through its limitations.
Facebook’s Tools are Easy to Bypass
For one, these lists are incredibly easy for spammers and trolls to fool. Because keyword-based blocklists are so rigid, all it takes is some creative spacing or spelling to get past them. For example, one might replace a letter with a similar-looking symbol: “c” can become “(“ and “i” may be replaced with “|” and Facebook’s tools won’t know the difference.
In short: when using Facebook’s native community moderation tools, you not only have to generate a list of keywords to block, but must account for each one’s variations as well—of which there may be millions. Accounting for all these variations can be difficult, though, because Facebook’s platform allows up to only 10,000 characters for blocking.
The Slang-versus-Keyword Arms Race
And if you thought spelling variations made keyword lists inconveniently reactive, don’t forget slang. Novel slang terms that are profane or abusive in nature are always popping up—sometimes too quickly to keep up with. If you want to keep your profile free from trolls’ latest abusive jargon, Facebook’s native comment moderation just doesn’t make the cut.
Spam is similarly difficult to keep up with, because new phrases and forms of spam are constantly popping up. As soon as you’ve found a way to block one spam post, more arrive!
Community Moderation is More Difficult with Multiple Languages
If your page has a global audience, automatic keyword blocking might give you some headaches. A benign word in one language may be profane in another, causing false-positives and punishing well-meaning fans who have said nothing wrong in their own language. Here’s a small handful of such words:
- Prick (“spot” or “dot” in Swedish)
- Slut (“the end” in Swedish)
- Dick (“fat” in German)
- Damit (“thus” in German)
Facebook Automated Moderation Can’t Determine Context
Unfortunately, keyword blocklists might even block out brand advocacy, because they don’t understand how some words are used. Let’s say you blocked the word “fing” from your page. What if someone comments to say they “fing loved” your latest announcement? The comment will be hidden—all because Facebook blocks any banned word or phrase without detecting the context.
Some brands might blacklist names of competitors, but this is shortsighted for the same reason: someone may comment about how their experience with a competitor paled in comparison to your business, but such advocacy will go to the void if you’ve blacklisted mentions of competition.
These Community Moderation Limitations Make More Work
Most automated tools require lots of collaboration with humans to really work: human teams need to fine-tune lists, review flagged comments and overall make sure everything is working as it should. This can be costly both in time and money, especially if you need constant, round-the-clock monitoring.
Ideally, you want to augment Facebook’s tools with something that can run autonomously. Smart Moderation goes beyond Facebook’s limitations in such a way: it’s a smart, machine learning-based artificial intelligence that meets all your comment moderation needs, much like a human agent would—and it works 24/7.
How Smart Moderation Meets Your Needs
Unlike Facebook’s native software, Smart Moderation can read context to determine whether there’s ill intent behind profanity or not. Say goodbye to generating lists of thousands of blocked terms, because this software is already aware of what constitutes as abuse, spam and harmful language. If you want a customized approach, you may give the software certain criteria on how to moderate your community—not just on Facebook, but on your other social networks as well.
Smart Moderation whisks away problematic posts within the minute that they’re published, moderating in real time. This fast, always-on moderating is perfect for Facebook Live Video posts, where discussion moves fast and is archived after broadcast.
Augmenting Facebook’s native tools with Smart Moderation gives you more time to focus on what truly matters: engaging with your fans. You don’t have to worry about keeping up on the latest insult or employing a team of moderators around the clock. Try out Smart Moderation’s fast, accurate AI community moderating for free!
Tags: Comment Moderation, Facebook