Meta told a racism inquiry it doesn't know whether any of its content moderators are Indigenous
None of Meta's moderators are based in Australia, and the advisory group it offered instead meets once or twice a year.
Meta told a parliamentary inquiry into racism against First Nations people that it is not aware of any Indigenous content moderators working for the company.
None of its moderators are based in Australia.
The company appeared before the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs in Brisbane on Tuesday.
A content moderator decides what happens to posts that breach a platform's rules.
Facebook director of policy for Australia and New Zealand Mia Garlick told the committee some moderators were Australian, but none were based here.
“I find it pretty extraordinary that you don't have any of your moderators in Australia to fully appreciate the Australian experience of racism,” committee chair Senator Jana Stewart said.
“And I find that at odds with your comments that you take these matters really seriously.”
Meta's answer was an advisory group.
Australia and New Zealand head of policy Cheryl Seeto said the company had set up a group to combat online hate that includes people from First Nations communities alongside academics and researchers.
It meets once or twice a year.
“We really draw on their expertise and advice as we work to make sure we're applying locally appropriate enforcement on our policies,” Ms Seeto said.
The committee heard repeated accusations that Meta fails to act on anti-Indigenous content, including that it does not remove posts breaching its own hateful conduct policy quickly enough.
Ms Garlick pointed to the company's work around the 2023 Voice referendum.
She said Meta expanded its Australia-specific slurs list, wrote policy guidance for content reviewers, boosted funding for third-party fact checkers and coordinated with the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Electoral Commission.
The Australian Human Rights Commission and Indigenous advocacy groups have told the inquiry online hate against Indigenous people has risen since the referendum failed.
National Indigenous Times says Meta suspended the masthead for 72 hours earlier this year for reporting verbatim on abuse directed at a 13-year-old Aboriginal girl.
The inquiry also heard that governments are not measuring the problem.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said the requirement to monitor institutional racism under the Closing the Gap agreement had never been implemented.
“Priority area three of that agreement is to eradicate racism across our governments, across our systems, across our services,” she said.
“We don't have that in place five years into that national agreement and there's not a lot of evidence that action is happening.”
The inquiry was set up after the alleged terror attack on an Invasion Day rally in Perth on January 26.
It hears evidence in Cairns on Wednesday and Thursday and on Thursday Island on Friday, with a report due later this year.