Facebook lets violent videos remain on the site to enhance the user’s experience and, as one moderator said, because that ultimately leads to more profits being made, The Evening Standard reported.
This emerged during an investigation launched by Channel 4’s “Dispatchers,” which sent an undercover reporter to attend and film a training session for Facebook content moderators at CPL Resources in Dublin.
During the session, a moderator instructed the trainees to leave violent content on the social media platform because censoring made users lose interest.
“It’s all about making money at the end of the day,” the moderator said, according to The Evening Standard.
The Independent reported, according to footage from the investigators, trainees are instructed to remove content relating to racially abused protected ethnic or religious groups, but content limited to immigrants from those groups could stay up.
While content depicting violence and other extreme behavior tends to be left online, other less aggressive content is being blocked amid Facebook’s political crackdown.
Last month the site temporarily blocked a gospel music video from its platform after the content was flagged as “political.”
And earlier this month the social media platform flagged the Declaration of Independence as hate speech after a Texas community newspaper posted an excerpt to its page in the week leading up to July 4.
The “Dispatchers” probe revealed that Facebook was more lenient towards content posted by popular public figures who have thousands of followers, such as Tommy Robinson, The Evening Standard said.
Last year The Guardian reported, following the emergence of leaked policies on how Facebook governs what content to censor, that violent videos of death, bullying, non-sexual abuse, abortions and animal abuse need not be deleted.
Richard Allan, vice-president of public policy at Facebook, responded to “Dispatchers” investigation, saying it was clear that some of what is shown in the program “does not reflect Facebook's policies or values, and falls short of the high standards” expected, according to The Evening Standard.
He added that Facebook took mistakes in its training processes and enforcement “incredibly seriously” and was “grateful to the journalists” who brought it to their attention.
Related stories:
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.