Facebook Deleting 66K Hate Speech Posts Each Week

NEW YORK, NY — Facebook is deleting about 66,000 posts a week as the social media giant cracks down on what it considers to be hate speech.

The company says in a blog post Tuesday that deleting posts can "feel like censorship," but that it is working on explaining its process better.

Facebook says it defines hate speech as attacks on people based on their race, sexual orientation and other "protected characteristics." The Menlo Park, California, company says it mostly relies on its nearly two billion users to report any hateful posts they see. Workers then review the posts and decide whether to delete it.

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Facebook Inc. says it has 4,500 workers reviewing posts and plans to hire 3,000 more in the next year.

The deleted posts went up over the last two months.

Photo credit: Nam Y. Huh, Associated Press