Page 24 - aruba-today-20190921

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 21 September 2019
Facebook still auto-generating Islamic State, al-Qaida pages

By DESMOND BUTLER and It also expanded its defini-
BARBARA ORTUTAY tion of terrorism to include
Associated Press not just acts of violence in-
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the tended to achieve a politi-
face of criticism that Face- cal or ideological aim, but
book is not doing enough also attempts at violence,
to combat extremist mes- especially when aimed at
saging, the company likes civilians with the intent to
to say that its automated coerce and intimidate. It's
systems remove the vast unclear, though, how well
majority of prohibited con- enforcement works if the
tent glorifying the Islamic company is still having trou-
State group and al-Qaida ble ridding its platform of
before it's reported. well-known extremist orga-
But a whistleblower's com- nizations' supporters.
plaint shows that Facebook But as the report shows,
itself has inadvertently pro- plenty of material gets
vided the two extremist through the cracks — and
groups with a networking gets auto-generated.
and recruitment tool by The AP story in May high-
producing dozens of pages lighted the auto-genera-
in their names. tion problem, but the new
The social networking com- Pages from a confidential whistleblower's report obtained by The Associated Press, along with content identified in the
pany appears to have two printed Facebook pages that were active on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, are photographed in report suggests that Face-
made little progress on the Washington. book has not solved it.
issue in the four months Associated Press The report also says that re-
since The Associated Press searchers found that many
detailed how pages that week. The filing obtained pages as people can't They uncovered one page of the pages referenced
Facebook auto-generates by the AP identifies almost comment or post on them for "Mohammed Atta" with in the AP report were re-
for businesses are aiding 200 auto-generated pag- and we remove any that an iconic photo of one of moved more than six weeks
Middle East extremists and es — some for businesses, violate our policies. While the al-Qaida adherents, later on June 25, the day
white supremacists in the others for schools or other we cannot catch every who was a hijacker in the before Bickert was ques-
United States. categories — that directly one, we remain vigilant in Sept. 11 attacks. The page tioned for another congres-
On Wednesday, U.S. sena- reference the Islamic State this effort." lists the user's work as "Al sional hearing.
tors on the Committee on group and dozens more Facebook has a number Qaidah" and education as The issue was flagged in
Commerce, Science, and representing al-Qaida and of functions that auto-gen- "University Master Bin Lad- the initial SEC complaint
Transportation questioned other known groups. One erate pages from content en" and "School Terrorist Af- filed by the center's execu-
representatives from social page listed as a "political posted by users. The up- ghanistan." tive director, John Kosty-
media companies, includ- ideology" is titled "I love dated complaint scrutinizes Facebook has been work- ack, which alleges the so-
ing Monika Bickert, who Islamic state." It features one function that is meant ing to limit the spread of cial media company has
heads Facebook's efforts an IS logo inside the out- to help business network- extremist material on its ser- exaggerated its success
to stem extremist messag- lines of Facebook's famous ing. It scrapes employment vice, so far with mixed suc- combatting extremist mes-
ing. Bickert did not address thumbs-up icon. information from users' pag- cess. In March, it expand- saging.
Facebook's auto-genera- In response to a request es to create pages for busi- ed its definition of prohib- "Facebook would like us
tion during the hearing, but for comment, a Facebook nesses. In this case, it may ited content to include U.S. to believe that its magical
faced some skepticism that spokesperson told the AP: be helping the extremist white nationalist and white algorithms are somehow
the company's efforts were "Our priority is detecting groups because it allows separatist material as well scrubbing its website of ex-
effectively countering ex- and removing content users to like the pages, po- as that from international tremist content," Kostyack
tremists. posted by people that tentially providing a list of extremist groups. It says it said. "Yet those very same
The new details come from violates our policy against sympathizers for recruiters. has banned 200 white su- algorithms are auto-gen-
an update of a complaint dangerous individuals The new filing also found premacist organizations erating pages with titles
to the Securities and Ex- and organizations to stay that users' pages promot- and 26 million pieces of like 'I Love Islamic State,'
change Commission that ahead of bad actors. Au- ing extremist groups remain content related to global which are ideal for terrorists
the National Whistleblow- to-generated pages are easy to find with simple extremist groups like IS and to use for networking and
er Center plans to file this not like normal Facebook searches using their names. al-Qaida. recruiting."q

Walgreens, Google affiliate to launch drone delivery test

By TOM MURPHY Virginia, by a 10-pound place their order through a of Google parent Alpha- deliveries. It marked the first
AP Health Writer (4.5-kilogram) drone flying Wing app and then get de- bet Inc. "We're taking a time a company has got-
Walgreens and a Google as fast as 70 miles (113 kilo- livery anywhere from five to 10-pound aircraft to move ten a federal drone deliv-
affiliate are testing drone meters) per hour, the com- 10 minutes afterward. a three-pound package ery certification.
deliveries that can put panies said Thursday. A drone capable of mak- through the sky," Wing CEO Online retail giant Amazon
drugstore products on cus- Customers will be able to ing a 12-mile (19-kilometer) James Ryan Burgess said. said in June that it plans to
tomer doorsteps minutes order from a list of more round trip will fly to the de- "It's very light, very efficient." use self-piloted drones to
after being ordered. than 100 items that in- livery site, hover and use a Drone deliveries in the Unit- deliver packages to shop-
Snacks like Goldfish Crack- cludes individual consumer winch system to lower the ed States are still largely in pers' homes in the coming
ers or gummy bears as well goods and packages of package to the ground early testing. Google an- months. "I think we still have
as aspirin for sick kids will products to help with things and leave it there. The nounced in April that Wing a ways to go before it's the
be delivered starting next like coughs and colds, but drone will be run by Wing received federal approval norm in our transportation
month in Christiansburg, not prescriptions. They will Aviation LLC, a subsidiary to make commercial drone network," he said.q