Page 24 - aruba-today-20180721

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 21 July 2018

Zuckerberg's Holocaust comment puts Facebook on the spot

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP been even more free-
Technology Writer wheeling in what sorts of
NEW YORK (AP) — Denying content it allows, only re-
the Holocaust happened is cently ramping up a crack-
probably OK on Facebook. down on hate and abuse.
Calling for a mob to kill "Facebook doesn't want to
Jews is not. put time and resources to
Mark Zuckerberg's awk- policing content. It's costly
ward and eyebrow-raising and difficult," said Steve
attempt this week to ex- Jones a professor of com-
plain where Facebook munications at the Univer-
draws the line illustrates the sity of Illinois at Chicago.
complexities social media "It's a difficult job, I'm sure
platforms face as they take an emotionally draining
on the unwanted role of job, and given the scale
referee in this age of online of Facebook, it would take
misinformation, manipula- a lot of people to monitor
tion and hate speech. what goes through that
Facebook, with 2.2 billion platform."
users, disallows such things At the same time, Jones
as nudity, the selling of said he has his doubts that
guns, credible threats of vi- throwing more modera-
olence, and direct attacks In this May 1, 2018, file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes the keynote address at F8, tors (Facebook's goal is to
on people because of their Facebook's developer conference in San Jose, Calif. increase the number from
race, sex or sexual orienta- Associated Press 10,000 to 20,000 this year)
tion. and more technology at
Hours after the Facebook fies as supporting terrorist a slippery slope where the and instead tries to let users the problem would make
founder's comments about groups versus merely post- company finds itself trying decide for themselves. a difference. He said he
Holocaust deniers aired on ing about them? Or mock- to verify the historical ac- This is why fake news isn't has no idea how Facebook
Wednesday, the company ing someone's premature curacy of users' posts. actually banned from can fix things.
announced it will also start death — something that is So, where it can, Facebook Facebook, though you "If I knew," he said, "I'd prob-
removing misinformation also prohibited? stays out of policing con- might see less of it these ably be sitting next to Mr.
that could lead to blood- If Facebook were to ban tent. days thanks to the compa- Zuckerberg asking for a big
shed. The policy will begin Holocaust denial, it might While thousands of Face- ny's algorithms and third- fat check."
in Sri Lanka and expand also be called on to pro- book moderators around party fact-checking efforts. Why these companies try
to Myanmar, where Face- hibit the denial of other the world are assigned to Instead, Facebook might to stay out of regulating
book users have been ac- historical events, such as review potentially objec- label disputed news stories speech goes back to their
cused of inciting anti-Mus- the Armenian genocide tionable content, aided by as such and show you re- roots. They were all found-
lim violence. or the massacre of Native artificial intelligence, exec- lated content that might ed by engineers as tech
But beyond those guide- Americans by European utives like to say the com- change your mind. companies that shun labels
lines, there are large gray colonizers. This, Facebook pany doesn't want to be- YouTube recently started such as "media" and "edi-
areas. What, exactly, quali- might argue, could lead to come an "arbiter of truth" doing this too. Twitter has tor." q

Facebook suspends Boston

analytics firm over data usage

among the firm's clients is a priately. bridge Analytica's use of
Russian nonprofit with ties Crimson Hexagon says on private user data.
to the Kremlin. its website it has access to Users of Crimson Hexagon's
"We don't allow develop- over one trillion consumer platform, which include
ers to build surveillance conversations from social government customers,
tools using information media, forums, blogs and analyze the data to under-
from Facebook or Insta- reviews. stand large-scale consum-
gram," said Ime Archibong, In a blog posting , Crimson er trends and preferences,
In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed
on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook's vice president Hexagon Chief Technol- Bingham wrote.
Associated Press of product partnerships. ogy Officer Chris Bingham "Government entities that
"We take these allegations said the company "abides leverage the Crimson
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- how third-party firms use its seriously, and we have sus- completely" by the rules Hexagon platform do so
book said Friday that it has data since news broke in pended these apps while social media sites including for the same reasons as
suspended Boston-based March that data firm Cam- we investigate." Twitter and Facebook put many of our other non-
analytics firm Crimson bridge Analytica improp- Facebook said Friday that in place to limit the ways government customers: a
Hexagon while it investi- erly accessed user data. Crimson Hexagon is coop- third-party companies can broad-based and aggre-
gates how it collects and The Wall Street Journal first erating and that so far its use their data. gate understanding of the
shares Facebook and Ins- reported that Facebook investigation hasn't found He said the firm only col- public's perception, pref-
tagram's user data. had suspended Crimson evidence that the firm ob- lects publicly available erences and sentiment
Facebook has been fac- Hexagon. tained Facebook or Insta- social media data. He about matters of concern
ing increased scrutiny over The newspaper says gram information inappro- contrasted that with Cam- to them," he wrote.q