Microsoft has announced it has launched a new website for people to report any hate speech that is posted on its online services. This new move comes just a few months after the company pledged to remove terrorist content from its services.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated:
We will continue our "notice-and-takedown" approach for removing prohibited content on hosted consumer services, and the new form aims to improve the quality and speed of our reviews. When hate speech is reported to us, we will evaluate each complaint, consider context and other factors, and determine appropriate action with respect to the content and the user's account.
In addition to the hate speech reporting site, Microsoft has launched another site that will allow users to submit requests to reinstate content as well:
We take seriously our responsibilities in removing hate speech and addressing other violations of our terms of use, but we're not perfect. We already provide customers, within various consumer products and services, the means to ask us to review a content removal decision they feel was made in error. And, just as we're making it simpler for users to report hate speech, we're also adding a new multi-service reconsideration form to request reinstatement of content that customers feel was disabled in error. We will review submissions via this new form, and if appropriate, reinstate the content.
Microsoft says that these new sites are designed so that the company can "directly address hate speech on our hosted services" while also offering more transparency as to how the company handles this kind of content.
