With the onset of the pandemic and working from home, the number of content moderators responsible for taking down suicide and self-harm content went down as well. As a result, 80% LESS of that content was removed between April and June of this year.
Although numbers are back up to pre-covid levels, Instagram (owned by Facebook) still struggles with automated vs. people-driven content moderation. Developing smart AI computer tools to detect self-harm and suicide content has been helping proactively.
Highlighting the burden that social media companies now bear in the fragile mental health of young people, this article really reinforces the notion that suicide is contagious and highlights just how large a role social media plays in that contagion these days.