Facebook employees are now reviewing harmful content full-time as well

Contractual Facebook content moderators have been temporarily sent home due to the pandemic and Facebook employees have stepped in

As Facebook content moderators who are mostly on contractual basis have temporarily been sent home owing to the coronavirus pandemic, full-time employees at the company are now sifting through harmful content. (REUTERS)

As Facebook content moderators who are mostly on contractual basis have temporarily been sent home owing to the coronavirus pandemic, full-time employees at the company are now sifting through harmful content.

According to the company, it has asked some of its full-time employees to review content related to real-world harm like child safety and suicide and self-injury in absence of a content reviewing team.

"Last month, we announced that we would temporarily send our content reviewers home. Since then we've shared updates on changes we've made to keep our platform safe during this time, including increasing the use of automation, carefully prioritizing user reports, and temporarily altering our appeals process," the company informed late Tuesday.

Facebook said its offices are unlikely to return to business as usual in the near future.

"Some of our full-time employees will continue to review sensitive content, but as Mark (Zuckerberg) referenced last week we will begin working with our partners to bring a small number of content reviewers back to offices to support these efforts in the coming weeks," said the social networking giant.

Returning to the office will be voluntary. Facebook said it will work with its partners to put protections in place to keep content reviewers safe.

These will include greatly reducing building capacity in offices to ensure government guidelines on physical distancing can be observed, implementing strict cleaning protocols and providing personal protective equipment like masks and gloves as well as temperature checks at the beginning of every shift.