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Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

businessinsider.com

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Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#41

Post by throwaway8582 »

rayiner wrote: post #14

> so that hate speech against Black, Jewish, LGBTQ , Muslim , and multiracial people would be taken down through an automated system And what happens when the system takes down quotes from the Quran--which Muslims believe to be not only the inspired, but perfect word of God--as "hate speech."

>> so that hate speech against Black, Jewish, LGBTQ, Muslim, and multiracial people would be taken down through an automated system

What about hate speech against white people, or Christians? Have these groups been dehumanized to the point where that is just considered completely acceptable and uncontroversial now?

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#42

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #14

> so that hate speech against Black, Jewish, LGBTQ , Muslim , and multiracial people would be taken down through an automated system And what happens when the system takes down quotes from the Quran--which Muslims believe to be not only the inspired, but perfect word of God--as "hate speech."

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#43

Post by mzs »

robobob5000 wrote: post #4

"The researchers proposed a tweak so that hate speech against Black, Jewish, LGBTQ, Muslim, and multiracial people would be taken down through an automated system." Hmm I just read another article on this which said the proposed tweak was actually to STOP automatically blocking hate speech against white people. I guess in light of that you can see how the quote is factually correct but worded in such a way to complet…

from the original source:

>They were proposing a major overhaul of the hate speech algorithm. From now on, the algorithm would be narrowly tailored to automatically remove hate speech against only five groups of people — those who are Black, Jewish, LGBTQ, Muslim or of multiple races — that users rated as most severe and harmful. (The researchers hoped to eventually expand the algorithm’s detection capabilities to protect other vulnerable groups, after the algorithm had been retrained and was on track.) Direct threats of violence against all groups would still be deleted.

>…

>But Kaplan and the other executives did give the green light to a version of the project that would remove the least harmful speech, according to Facebook’s own study: programming the algorithms to stop automatically taking down content directed at White people, Americans and men. The Post previously reported on this change when it was announced internally later in 2020.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/21/faceboo...

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#44

Post by lostmsu »

helen___keller wrote: post #39
nradov wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any inflammatory garbage. It's all a matter of which friends and pages you follow.

An example in case you’re curious: I once learned about a train meme group from a friend. I’m a transit enthusiast, so I joined and I loved this group. for a while it was one of the highlights of Facebook.com for me. I’m lib-left politically, which fit with the lefty slant of the group, but still there came to be frequent shitstorm threads all within the scope of lefty discourse. for example, upzoning vs gentrificati…

This is a moderation issue. Also the issue of Facebook as a product vs classic forums. A forum dedicated to transit would have subforums for political discussions, and a subforum for free for all. On Facebook I am not even sure that is possible in the same way.

But implementing a whole site filtering mechanism for derogatory art sounds like an extreme measure.

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#45

Post by nradov »

varispeed wrote: post #37

So if you see a racist post, making derogatory remarks against your race and you report it, Facebook reviews it and says it meets community standards, then you send it for reconsideration and nothing happens for weeks... What are the next steps? Do you report Facebook to the Police or are they immune? I read many times that someone posted something on Twitter and police raided their home the next day. Can they do the…

That would entirely depend on the local laws in your jurisdiction. In the US there is no law against creating or publishing racist content. (I'm not claiming that it's morally right to do that, but it's not illegal.)

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#47

Post by Lucasoato »

ohhhhhh wrote: post #11
helen___keller wrote: post #8

> like a user who posted an image of a chimpanzee with the caption, "Here's one of Michelle Obama." Anecdotally, I’ve seen these sort of images shared across Facebook many times and it was a large part of a decision to step back my usage of the product around 2016, including having my account deactivated for several years This topic is commonly viewed in a political lens (free speech, etc) but I view it in a free mar…

and you survived to tell the story. the "hate speech" didnt kill you

There are a lot of people suffering of depression, I don't think that what you implied there is valid.

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#48

Post by tpush »

simiones wrote: post #29
statguy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not address the problem of “Michelle Obama is a chimpanzee” or the “holocaust did not happen” going viral in one of those communities!

If that community likes these ideas, that is not anybody else's business. Unless you believe there exists undeniable truth + an algorithm to find it, you have to accept that people can each decide what they believe is true - even [what you and I perceive as] hurtful and misguided ideas such as the above.

> If that community likes these ideas, that is not anybody else's business.

That's obviously not the case in most countries on this earth. Holocaust denial for example is illegal across the EU.

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#49

Post by at_a_remove »

helen___keller wrote: post #8

> like a user who posted an image of a chimpanzee with the caption, "Here's one of Michelle Obama." Anecdotally, I’ve seen these sort of images shared across Facebook many times and it was a large part of a decision to step back my usage of the product around 2016, including having my account deactivated for several years This topic is commonly viewed in a political lens (free speech, etc) but I view it in a free mar…

Part of the grand tradition since "Bush or Chimp?" which was quite popular for a while. How soon we forget!

Re: Facebook Execs Nixed Employees' Plan to Quell Hate Speech: Report

#50

Post by mzs »

spfzero wrote: post #26

It seems this falls into the category of: Company has idea, investigates it, decides not to go ahead for the time being. Big deal. This is what all businesses do all the time. They task some employees to come up with a plan or to research a possible plan. Then they consider it from various angles, then they might decide to go ahead with it as is, modify it, or table it. It is always an "Employees' Plan" because the p…

There is something notable, that a conservative VP protected those users at the expense of more vulnerable ones again.

>Kaplan, the company’s most influential Republican, was widely known as a strong believer in the idea that Facebook should appear “politically neutral,” and his hard-line free speech ideology was in lockstep with company CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Facebook recently changed its corporate name to Meta.) He bent over backward to protect conservatives, according to previous reporting in The Post, numerous former insiders and the Facebook Papers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/21/faceboo...

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