Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 31 May 2019
Facebook isn’t deleting the fake Pelosi video. Should it?

By BARBARA ORTUTAY share the video as a test,
AP Technology Writer a Facebook pop-up noted
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — the existence of “addition-
When a doctored video of al reporting” on the video
House Speaker Nancy Pe- with links to fact-check ar-
losi — one altered to show ticles, but didn’t directly
the Democratic leader describe the video as false
slurring her words — be- or misleading.
gan making the rounds Alex Stamos, Facebook’s
on Facebook last week, former security chief,
the social network didn’t tweeted Sunday that few
take it down. Instead, it critics of the social net-
“downranked” the video, work’s handling of the Pe-
a behind-the-scenes move losi video could articulate
intended to limit its spread. realistic enforcement stan-
That outraged some peo- dards beyond “take down
ple who believe Facebook stuff I don’t like.”
should do more to clamp Mass censorship of mis-
down on misinformation. leading speech on Face-
Pelosi derided Facebook book, he wrote, would be
Wednesday for not tak- “a huge and dangerous
ing down the video even increase in FB’s editorial
though it knows it is false. power.”
But the company and Last year, Zuckerberg
some civil libertarians warn wrote on Facebook that
that Facebook could the company focuses on
evolve into an unaccount- downranking so-called
able censor if it’s forced to “borderline content,” stuff
make judgment calls on that doesn’t violate its rules
the veracity of text, photos but is provocative, sensa-
or videos. In this May 24, 2019, file photo speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pauses during a panel tionalist, “click-bait or misin-
Facebook has long resist- discussion at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pa. formation.”
ed making declarations Associated Press While it’s true that Face-
about the truthfulness of minister of Norway, among conservatives. That’s a dog had been viewed book could just change
posts that could open it up others.) “false narrative,” said Siva nearly 3 million times and its rules around what is al-
to charges of censorship or But staying out of the line of Vaidhyanathan, director shared more than 48,000 lowed — moving the line
political bias. It manages fire is harder than it used to of the Center for Media times. By contrast, other on acceptable mate-
to get itself in enough trou- be, given Facebook’s size, and Citizenship at the Uni- videos posted by this group rial — Zuckerberg said this
ble simply trying to enforce reach and impact on glob- versity of Virginia. But as a in the past haven’t had doesn’t address the under-
more basic rules in difficult al society. The social net- result, he said, “any effort more than a few thousand lying problem of incentive.
cases, such as the time a work can’t help but run into to clean up Facebook now views apiece. If the line of what is allowed
straightforward applica- controversy given its 2.4 bil- would spark tremendous Further complicating mat- moves, those creating ma-
tion of its ban on nudity led lion users and the sorts of fury.” ters is the fact that Face- terial would just push closer
it to remove an iconic Viet- decisions it must make dai- Twitter hasn’t removed the book is starting to de-em- to that new line.
nam War photo of a naked ly— everything from which doctored Pelosi video, ei- phasize the news feed itself. Facebook continuously
girl fleeing a napalm at- posts and links it highlights ther, and declined com- CEO Mark Zuckerberg has grapples with the right way
tack. (It backed down af- in your news feed to decid- ment on its handling of outlined a broad strategy to deal with new forms of
ter criticism from the prime ing what counts as hate it. But YouTube yanked it that will emphasize private misinformation, Nathaniel
speech to banning con- down, pointing to commu- messaging over public Gleicher, the company’s
troversial figures or leaving nity guidelines that prohibit sharing on Facebook. And head of cybersecurity pol-
them be. spam, deceptive practices Facebook groups, many of icy, said in a February inter-
Facebook has another in- and scams. Facebook has which are private, aren’t view with the AP. The prob-
centive to keep its head a similar policy that prohib- subject to downranking, lem is far more complex
down. The deeper it gets its the use of “misleading Vaidhyanathan said. than carefully manipulated
into editorial decisions, the and inaccurate” informa- Facebook didn’t respond “deepfake” videos that
more it looks like a pub- tion to gain likes, followers to emailed questions about show people doing things
lisher, which could tempt or shares, although it ap- its policies and whether it is they never did, or even
legislators to limit the li- parently decided not to considering changes that crudely doctored videos
ability shield it currently apply it in this case. would allow it to remove such as the Pelosi clip.
enjoys under federal law. None of these compa- similar videos in the future. Any consistent policy, Glei-
In addition, making judg- nies explicitly prohibit false In an interview last week cher said, would have to
ments about truth and fal- news, although Facebook with CNN’s Anderson Coo- account for edited images,
sity could quickly become notes that it “significantly” per, Facebook’s head of ones presented out of con-
one of the world’s biggest reduces the distribution of global policy, Monika Bick- text (such as a decade-
headaches. such posts by pushing them ert, defended the compa- old photo presented as
For instance, Republican lower in user news feeds. ny’s decision , noting that current), doctored audio
politicians and other con- The problem is that such users are “being told” that and more. He said it’s a
servatives, from President downranking doesn’t quite the video is false when they huge challenge to accu-
Donald Trump to Fox News work, Vaidhyanathan said. view or share it. rately identify such items
personalities, have been As of Wednesday, the vid- That might be a stretch. and decide what type of
trumpeting the charge that eo shared on Facebook by When an Associated Press disclosure to require when
Facebook is biased against the group Politics Watch- reporter attempted to they’re edited.q