Leaked Facebook documents show its shifting hate speech policies

Over the last year or so, Facebook's public statements have reflected the ongoing process of its moderation policies, both when it comes to election fraud and the even pricklier issue of hate speech. Now, beyond its publicly available Community Standards and various apologies, Motherboard has published internal documents showing what it's actually policing, and how that has changed over time.

One portion points to Matt Furie's Pepe the Frog character, which it has been outright banned when used in hateful contexts, even as other cartoon characters have not. In another, Motherboard highlights policies that have changed in detail and scope, attempting to draw lines between white supremacy, white nationalism and white separatism. While praise, support and representation of the first one as an ideology is banned, for nationalism and separatism they are not.

Apparently, Facebook has its own definitions of what makes a group a hate group, which differs from a list compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, for example. Facebook confirmed in a statement that it checks "whether an individual or group should be designated as a hate figure or organisation based on a number of different signals, such as whether they carried out or have called for violence against people based on race, religion or other protected categories."

In one of the documents it specifically cited the events in Charlottesville at a white nationalist rally where a man drove into and killed a young woman who was protesting, as a reason for re-educating moderators, and admitted the differences between these groups can be blurred. Why it waited until after the rally, and wasn't spurred on by the long history of overlapping white power groups in the US, or the 2016 Charleston church shooting, to provide more information, is left unclear. Facebook has said "We are opposed to hate speech in all its forms, and don't allow it on our platform," but exactly who decides when that definition changes and what impact it has on the world we live in is still murky.

Source: Motherboard (1), (2)



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2LvSASi
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more