A strange thing happened to
Robert Scoble,
a fan of all-things-social, over the weekend when he tried to comment
on a Facebook post. Facebook blocked his comment outright, calling it
"irrelevant or inappropriate."
It's no secret that Facebook
monitors comments to block spam and
offensive content.
Users can flag inappropriate images or comments for Facebook to remove.
If a user is reported too many times, they are no longer allowed to
post on the site. It also blocks friend requests from being sent if it
looks like spam because the two users don't have many friends in common.
There've also been reports of
people being temporarily blocked from posting on the site entirely after writing too many comments within a short period of time.
However, the error message sounded as if Facebook was analyzing the
contents of the message and deciding what was relevant or not, which
would go beyond traditional anti-spam measures and veer into censorship
territory.
"Wow, does Facebook do sentiment analysis on comments and keeps you
from posting negative comments?" Scoble asked on his Facebook page.
Facebook's Error Message
Scoble's "This Comment
Can't Be Posted" pop-up message stated the following: "This comment
seems irrelevant or inappropriate and can't be posted. To avoid having
your comments blocked, please make sure they contribute to the post in a
positive way." There was an "Okay" button to close the error message.
Scoble was commenting on a Facebook post by Carnegie Mellon student
Max Woolf discussing PandoDaily when he received the error message.
Scoble posted the original comment on (where else?)
Google+
to figure out what had triggered Facebook's blocking algorithms. It
seems pretty clear from looking at the original comment that there was
nothing obviously argumentative or negative about what Scoble wrote.
There was also no sign of profanity.
It turned out the problem was in the wording of the error, as
Facebook told Scoble the comment had triggered the site's anti-spam
measures. The Facebook team is currently investigating to figure out
exactly what triggered the spam flag and would also consider updating
the wording to make it clearer that the comment was blocked as spam and
not because of the content, Scoble said in an update.
Google+ Trigger?
Several observers wondered
whether Scoble's mention of Google+ in the comment triggered the block
in the first place. While Scoble dismissed the possibility, saying he
had written about G+ in the past without any trouble, several remained
convinced. At least four commenters claimed on Scoble's Facebook page
that they regularly have problems posting G+ links or links using
Google's Goo.gl URL shortening service.
Just for kicks, I tried out all three posts on my Facebook page and had no trouble.
What Does Facebook Block?
The comment thread on
Scoble's Facebook page is full of people posting random items to try to
trigger similar messages to figure out what Facebook considers spam.
People reported what got blocked, but others had no trouble posting the
same thing.
Instead of blocks, some people saw a warning. Several users reported a slightly different message, in which Facebook asked, "
Are you sure you want to post this?"
That version of the message read, "If your comment is irrelevant or
inappropriate, you may be blocked from commenting on public posts.
Please review your comment before posting." Unlike the first message,
this version allowed the user to "Confirm" and post the message, or
"Cancel" and edit the comment.
The key takeaway from the exercise appears to be that it's not a
straightforward flag and it's not at all clear what Facebook considers
spam.
Scoble's comment may have been flagged because he is subscribed to
see Woolf's posts, but is not a "friend" according to the system. "The
spam classification system treats comments more strictly than if we were
friends," he explained. He also included three @ links, referencing
Facebook accounts.
Neither one of these are particularly unusual on Facebook. Many users
have subscribed to accounts to keep up-to-date with high-profile
accounts they are not necessarily friends with, and including @ links in
messages, especially if there is a conversation between a group of
people, is fairly common.
"The PR official I talked with told me that the spam classification
system has tons of algorithms that try to keep you from posting
low-value comments, particularly to public accounts," Scoble said.
Scammers are taking advantage of social networking sites to
post spam links
to trick users into visiting random sites or selling bogus products. No
system is ever perfect, and false-positives will sometimes happen.
While Facebook has been working hard to fight the problem, it appears
the algorithms may be a little too aggressive.
"I think Facebook's algorithm on spammers is a bit off. If you're
like Robert Scoble or myself and comment on posts often we seem to be
getting this a lot," Scott Ayres, CIO of FanPageEngine wrote on
Facebook. "Sure it's something they will fix," he added.
For more from Fahmida, follow her on Twitter @zdFYRashid.
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