Page 24 - aruba-today-20190928

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 28 September 2019
Advocates fault Facebook over misleading posts by politicos

By JEFF AMY comes from, and certainly
Associated Press if it comes from the presi-
ATLANTA (AP) — Some civil dent of the United States,
rights groups agree Face- it should not be on Face-
book has made progress book,” Fernandez said.
in addressing their con- “It is killing people.... It is not
cerns, but advocates are news that Donald Trump
still criticizing the tech gi- says racist things. And be-
ant’s reiteration that it cause politicians have a
won’t remove newsworthy larger influence in moving
posts from elected officials, public opinion, they should
even if they’re mislead- be held to a higher stan-
ing or break the site’s rules dard, not a lesser one.”
against things like racist Since the audit began,
speech. Facebook has banned
The criticism came Thurs- messages discouraging
day at a meeting in At- people from voting and
lanta hosted by Facebook announced it would pro-
and one of its most persis- tect against interference in
tent critics, the civil rights the census.
group Color of Change. The company in March
The meeting was aimed banned explicit praise of
at raising outstanding con- white nationalism and sep-
cerns and addressing solu- In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testifies before the Senate aratism, although a June
tions as Facebook works to Intelligence Committee hearing on ‘Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media update on the audit said
complete a civil rights au- Platforms’ on Capitol Hill in Washington. Facebook hasn’t done
dit due in early 2020. Associated Press enough to combat con-
Facebook Chief Operat- day in Washington. part of this new front and while those who try to talk tent that supports those
ing Officer Sheryl Sandberg “The understanding that this new battleground,” she frankly about racism in an ideologies without explicitly
told the roughly 100 invited we are exempting all po- told The Associated Press. effort to fight it end up in using those terms.
guests that her company litical speech from all poli- But she warned that the Facebook “jail,” with posts The company also says
doesn’t want to shy away ticians, that’s just not ac- company and critics were removed or accounts sus- that its artificial intelligence
from talking about “how curate,” Facebook Public unlikely to agree on every- pended. Henry Fernandez systems are doing better at
our platform still harms Policy Director Neil Potts thing. said the newsworthiness recognizing hate speech,
people and allows harm to told The Associated Press. The newsworthiness policy exception is “bad policy, detecting 65% of hate
happen,” after the com- Facebook agreed to the highlights a key disagree- made in fear that conser- speech that was eventually
pany came in for a storm civil rights audit after years ment. Advocates say they vatives will say Facebook is removed before a user re-
of criticism following rev- of criticism and moved for- too often see racism and silencing Trump.” ported it in March, up from
elations about how the so- ward with Thursday’s meet- white supremacy thriving, “This rhetoric, whoever it 24% in December 2017.q
cial media site was used to ing following long negotia-
spread disinformation dur- tions. Amazon offers a way to delete Alexa
ing the 2016 election. “Racism is not like the prob-
companies, that we have to solving,” said Color of recordings automatically
“We know better than most lems Silicon Valley is used
a lot to do in terms of strong Change President Rashad human reviewers rather
actions to restore confi- Robinson. “You just can’t than just machines.
dence,” Sandberg told at- hack it. You just can’t as- Previously, users had to
tendees at the end of the sign a project team to fig- go into Alexa’s settings
day. ure it out. Racism is highly and delete recordings
The Menlo Park, California, adaptable. You block it manually. Users can now
company didn’t make any one area and it goes and ask Amazon to automati-
promises in Thursday’s dis- attacks in another.” cally delete recordings
cussions, although execu- A number of those who at- after three months or 18
tives said they had clearly tended emphasized that months. But users need to
heard the discontent over it’s important that Face- specify that in the settings,
the newsworthiness rule. book entrench a focus on as recordings are kept in-
Sandberg and other com- civil rights. definitely by default. And
pany executives empha- “I think it’s essential that there’s no automatic op-
sized that the newsworthi- Facebook institutionalize tion for immediate dele-
ness policy is not a blanket this kind of input, and that it tion. Users would still need
exemption for politicians understands that civil rights In this Sept. 27, 2017, file photo, Amazon Echo and Echo Plus to do that manually.
to engage in hate speech issues will be a part of the devices, behind, sit near illuminated Echo Button devices When users ask for auto-
and also that the company company’s concerns and during an event announcing several new Amazon products matic deletion, a warn-
by the company in Seattle.
is still considering how it will problems for its entire exis- Associated Press ing will pop up saying that
handle the matter going tence,” said Laura Murphy, By JOSEPH PISANI commands to improve doing so could degrade
forward. who’s leading the office. NEW YORK (AP) — Users the service. But the prac- Alexa’s ability to respond
It’s not a new policy for Sandberg, who jotted of Amazon’s Alexa digital tice has raised concerns or understand users.
Facebook, but drew wide notes in a notebook while assistant can now request with privacy experts who Amazon will also let users
notice earlier this week on stage and in the audi- that recordings of their say the recordings could request deletions through
when British politician- ence, said the company is voice commands delete get into the wrong hands, an Alexa voice com-
turned Facebook execu- paying attention. automatically. especially as Amazon mand. The use of human
tive Nick Clegg discussed “We at Facebook recog- Amazon says it saves such and other companies use reviewers will continue.q
the issue in a speech Tues- nize that our platforms are