Facebook Inc. recently issued a statement apologizing to small businesses for mistakenly blocking their ads. In a bid to curb ‘infodemics’ or misinformation and keep a check on policy violators, the company has appointed Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots. However, earlier this month, the bots malfunctioned, abruptly blocking advertisements from small and struggling businesses across the world.
How did it begin?
The issue first surfaced on November 11, when the social networking platform blocked an advertisement of HoneyGramz, a New York-based business who was struggling to make meets end owing to the COVID-19 crisis. Facebook, which had earlier cited police violations, restored her account in a few days, however, the company had already suffered a loss of $5000 until then. Another business was hit the same weekend in Ottawa with Facebook citing the same reasons.
Why did it happen?
According to a Bloomberg report, Facebook’s human moderators have focused on election and Covid-19 misinformation in 2020, enabling the firm to learn more about artificial intelligence algorithms used to monitor other areas of the platform. This has prompted more and more small businesses to get caught in Facebook’s automated filters and get their advertisements disabled.
What did Facebook say?
Later, the California based company issued a statement apologizing for the business disruptions. In a statement, the Mark Zuckerberg led firm said that the company regularly works on improving its tools and systems and that the malfunction was a result of it.
"We know it can be frustrating to experience any type of business disruption, especially at such a critical time of the year. While we offer free support for all businesses, we regularly work to improve our tools and systems, and to make the support we offer easier to use and access. We apologize for any inconvenience recent disruptions may have caused,” Facebook said in a statement.