Facebook's year is going from bad to worse. The social network is apologizing for a jarring oversight in which it asked users whether or not it should allow posts from child sexual predators, The Guardian reports.
Over the weekend, Facebook ran a small survey regarding certain policies, and this particular question caught the eye The Guardian's Jonathan Haynes. "There are a wide range of topics and behaviors that appear on Facebook," the question reads. "In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook’s policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures."
The possible answers included "This content should be allowed on Facebook, and I would not mind seeing it," and "This content should not be allowed on Facebook, and no one should be able to see it." The follow-up question asked whether Facebook, users, or outside experts should be in charge of deciding said rules.
Facebook also failed to ask whether law enforcement should be notified of illicit conduct from pedophiles and what their punishment would be. Instead, the survey made Facebook look ill-equipped of policing its own platform from potential predators.
Facebook VP of product Guy Rosen later tweeted an apology, and admitted that the survey was a mistake. "We run surveys to understand how the community thinks about how we set policies," he explained. "But this kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable on FB. We regularly work with authorities if identified. It shouldn't have been part of this survey. That was a mistake."
And asked this … and I’m like, er wait it making it secret the best Facebook can offer here? Not, y’know, calling the police? pic.twitter.com/t2UZuKalfk
And y’know, shouldn’t laws figure here as being quite important on determining rules? pic.twitter.com/9fzdHNJos8
We run surveys to understand how the community thinks about how we set policies. But this kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable on FB. We regularly work with authorities if identified. It shouldn't have been part of this survey. That was a mistake.
"We understand this survey refers to offensive content that is already prohibited on Facebook and that we have no intention of allowing so have stopped the survey," the company said in a statement emailed to CNBC.
Facebook also released an official statement condemning the survey. "We have prohibited child grooming on Facebook since our earliest days; we have no intention of changing this and we regularly work with the police to ensure that anyone found acting in such a way is brought to justice," the statement read.
