Skip to content
Subscriber Only

Facebook Scans the Photos and Links You Send on Messenger

  • System aims to detect content that violates standards
  • Company on the defensive about how it handles private data
Bloomberg business news

Zuckerberg Responds to Facebook User Privacy Concerns

Updated on

Facebook Inc. scans the links and images that people send each other on Facebook Messenger, and reads chats when they’re flagged to moderators, making sure the content abides by the company’s rules. If it doesn’t, it gets blocked or taken down.

The company confirmed the practice after an interview published earlier this week with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg raised questions about Messenger’s practices and privacy. Zuckerberg told Vox’s Ezra Klein a story about receiving a phone call related to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. Facebook had detected people trying to send sensational messages through the Messenger app, he said.