Call it a case of sour grapes, but a former employee assigned the task of filtering out offensive content on Facebook has put up the social network's secret rulebook that explains how to deal with graphic content on the website. FB has apparently employed a third-party content-moderation firm called oDesk and the company paid this Moroccan worker a measly $1 per hour to clean up its system.

The website has a 17-page guidebook for oDesk, which advices employees how to deal with flagged photographs, posts, and videos. As compared to what appears on the FB's community guidelines, these instructions are not vague or misleading. While sexual content is a strict no-no, violence is not a tabooed subject after all. The same goes for content related to illegal usage of drug, barring posts related to marijuana, unless it clearly shows "that the poster is selling/buying/growing". 

As the users continue to fight against cyber bullying, internet censorship, and privacy issues, what's more shocking is how FB passes on user details to third party organizations, all under a veil as the social networking website is not even mentioned on oDesk's home page as a client. The report also adds that around 50 people from countries such as Mexico, Turkey, India, and the Philippines moderate content on Facebook.

Following the leak FB said, "In an effort to quickly and efficiently process the millions of reports we receive every day, we have found it helpful to contract third parties to provide precursory classification of a small proportion of reported content. These contractors are subject to rigorous quality controls and we have implemented several layers of safeguards to protect the data of those using our service". Take a look at the rules for yourself, and let us know what you think about these through your comments.

Tags : TechTree Blog, Internet, Facebook, Kamakshi