Facebook stands accused of auto-generating videos celebrating jihadist material and promoting terrorist “business pages”, flying in the face of its claims that it has practically eliminated extremist material from the social network.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="The videos were uncovered by a whistleblower who has filed a complaint with the US markets regulator accusing Mark Zuckerberg of misleading investors on its efforts to clean up the platform. ” data-reactid=”18″>The videos were uncovered by a whistleblower who has filed a complaint with the US markets regulator accusing Mark Zuckerberg of misleading investors on its efforts to clean up the platform.
A five month study of 3,000 pages found that many terror groups were actively being helped by Facebook’s own tools. Facebook’s algorithms were generating “memories” and video celebrations including battle scenes and Islamic state flags. A business page for al-Qaeda had racked up more than 7,410 likes, providing “valuable data” to the group, the complaint alleged. Nazi and white supremacist organisations also remained active.
John Kostyack, a lawyer for the National Whistleblower Center in Washington, said that Facebook’s failure to counteract extremist propaganda could put people in harm’s way.
“Right now we’re hearing stories of what happened in New Zealand and Sri Lanka – just heartbreaking massacres where the groups that came forward were clearly openly recruiting and networking on Facebook and other social media,” he said.
“That’s not going to stop unless we develop a public policy to deal with it, unless we create some kind of sense of corporate social responsibility.”
Facebook said it hired 200 people focused on extremist material and last year announced it was cracking down on the issue with the help of artificial intelligence, but admitted that its systems “were not perfect”.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Last week it banned notorious commentator Alex Jones along with other fringe media figures from both Facebook and Instagram after labeling them as "dangerous individuals".” data-reactid=”24″>Last week it banned notorious commentator Alex Jones along with other fringe media figures from both Facebook and Instagram after labeling them as “dangerous individuals”.
The social network said Mr Jones, his Infowars news network and five other people had violated its policies on calling for acts of violence, affiliation with “hateful” ideologies and using hate speech.
Add Comment