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Some Facebook content reviewers will focus solely on hate speech
Facebook isn't just interested in cracking down on fake accounts. While discussing the firm's latest Community Standards Enforcement Report, company VP Justin Osofsky revealed during a call that the social network will run a pilot program where some of its content reviewers focus solely on catching and removing hate speech. It's not certain how many will be involved or what the timeline will be, but the experiment might be necessary given Facebook's track record.
Facebook bans several major UK far-right groups
Facebook has banned a swath of UK far-right groups including the British National party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and Britain First. The action is part of its ongoing clampdown on hateful rhetoric, which has already seen it ban former EDL leader Tommy Robinson from its main platform and Instagram.
Facebook pulled over 1.5 million videos of New Zealand shooting
Internet giants have been racing to pull copies of the New Zealand mass shooter's video from their sites, and Facebook is illustrating just how difficult that task has been. Facebook New Zealand's Mia Garlick has revealed that the social network removed 1.5 million attack videos worldwide in the first 24 hours, 1.2 million of which were stopped at the upload stage. This includes versions edited to remove the graphic footage of the shootings, Garlick said, as the company wants to both respect people affected by the murders and the "concerns of local authorities."
Facebook removes fake accounts stoking political tension in UK
Facebook just cracked down on more fake accounts in the UK, and this time it was a relatively sophisticated scheme. The social network has pulled 137 bogus accounts (including for Instagram), groups and pages for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" that tried to play two sides of the political debate in the UK. The perpetrators posed as both far-right and anti-far-right activists and spread divisive rhetoric about immigration, racism, religion, free speech rights and LGBT issues, among other contentious topics. If that sounds familiar, it should -- just like the US saw in 2016, the culprits were trying to stoke political tensions under the guise of rallying support.
Study says 37 percent of Americans have faced 'severe' online harassment
It might be premature to claim the internet is becoming more civil. A YouGov study commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League indicates that 37 percent of Americans dealt with "severe" online harassment and hate speech in 2018, or more than twice as much as they reported in 2017. Moreover, women and minorities reported at least some kind of harassment based on their identity. About 63 percent of LBGTQ+ respondents said they'd been targeted, while Muslims (35 percent), Hispanics (30 percent), African-Americans (27 percent), women (24 percent), Asian-Americans (20 percent) and Jews (16 percent) also encountered hate speech.
YouTube bans the founder of far-right group the Proud Boys
The Proud Boys have lost another online platform, though this time it's not for the far-right group's hate speech and support for violence. YouTube has terminated Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes' account following "multiple third-party claims" of copyright violations. The company didn't name the specific violations in a statement to CNET, but it did say that it pulls the accounts of "repeat offenders."
Gab loses hosting provider following Pittsburgh mass shooting
Gab continues to lose support from internet services following the anti-Semitic mass shooting in Pittsburgh. Hosting provider Joyent is suspending service for Gab as of the morning of October 29th, likely leaving the social network "down for weeks," according to a tweet. Joyent only said there had been a "notice of a breach of our Terms of Service," but it was likely a response to Gab's inaction against the shooter's numerous racist conspiracy posts ahead of the attack, including one that same morning.
Twitter bans far-right group Proud Boys ahead of Washington rally
Just because Twitter is reluctant to take action against some of its more malicious users doesn't mean it isn't cracking down against others. Twitter has confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it banned the accounts of the far-right group Proud Boys for reportedly breaking its rules prohibiting "violent extremist groups." The social network shut down the group's main account, its satellite accounts and that of its founder Gavin McInnes. While the company didn't specify what prompted the move, it came just after a violent August 4th protest in Portland, Oregon, and just ahead of the extreme right-wing Washington, DC rally on August 12th.
Pandora stops promoting R. Kelly’s music
Yesterday, Spotify pulled R. Kelly from its curated playlists, which include RapCaviar, Discover Weekly and New Music Friday, saying the allegations of sexual assault that have followed R. Kelly for years go against its new policy on hateful conduct. Now, Pandora is following suit. The company told The Blast that while users can still create an R. Kelly radio station or search for him, it will no longer promote his music.
Twitter bans Congressional candidate after racist image
Twitter is continuing to act on its promise to fight hate speech, however imperfectly. The site has banned Wisconsin Congressional candidate Paul Nehlen after he posted a racist image that placed the face of Cheddar Man (a dark-skinned British ancestor) over actress and soon-to-be-royal Meghan Markle, who's mixed race. The company said it didn't normally comment on individual accounts, but said the permanent suspension was due to "repeated violations" of its terms of service.
Twitter starts enforcing tougher anti-hate rules
Twitter is about to crack down on hate speech in a big way... probably. As it marked on its safety calendar, the social network is now enforcing its recently updated polices on abuse and hate. From today on, Twitter says it will take action against people that use hateful imagery and language in their profiles, condone (or glorify) violence or participate in groups that promote violence against civilians -- including through their actions outside of Twitter. The site may only ask users to delete individual tweets if they run afoul of the rules, but repeated offensive tweets, a hateful profile or affiliation with a violent group will lead to a permanent ban.
Reddit bans misogynist community as part of anti-violence crackdown
Reddit's crackdown on hate-filled, violent communities isn't just limited to banning racists: the social site has banned r/Incels, the misogynistic "involuntary celibates" subreddit. While the company isn't diving into specific posts that prompted the ban, a spokeswoman pointed us to the October 25th policy change that forbids content which "encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm." And given Incels' history, it's easy to see why the subreddit ran afoul of these limits.
Reddit's stricter stance on violence bans more racist communities
Reddit has previously had success cleaning up its act by banning hate communities, and now it's expanding those crackdowns. The social site has widened its policies on violent content to forbid material that "encourages, glorifies, incites or calls for violence," and has used that to ban numerous subreddits that have celebrated racist violence. Some of them were very small, but others had as many as 7,000 subscribers or weren't exactly hiding their violent ideology, including /pol (an offshoot of 4chan's notorious board), /Nazi and /far_right.
Now Twitter's quest to become a 'safer' place has a schedule
You no longer have to wonder when you'll see Twitter implement the new rules promised by its CEO and outlined in that leaked email. The social network has released a "Safety Calendar," which details when it will roll out a series of new rules to make the platform a safer place. As the internal email said, the company plans to crack down on hate and violence on its website: on November 3rd, it promises to start suspending accounts of "organizations that use violence to advance their cause."
Internal Twitter email explains its new plans to fight abuse
Twitter promised stricter rules for abuse and hate in the wake of a boycott, but what will those rules entail, exactly? It's a bit clearer after today. Wired has obtained email providing early details on new policies, and they're mostly good news -- although they probably won't satisfy some people. Most notably, it's planning to crack down against all groups that "have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause" rather than focusing primarily on terrorism. It'll also take action against tweets that glorify violence, not just direct threats. There's no guarantee that this will lead to bans and suspensions against hate groups (Twitter is still hashing out the details), but that's what the early language implies.
Tech giants team with Anti-Defamation League to fight online hate
Internet giants like Facebook and Google have had to step up their fights against hate speech in recent months, but they only occasionally present a united front against bigotry. That might change after today, though. Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter are partnering with the Anti-Defamation League on a Cyberhate Problem-Solving Lab that aims to stem the tide of online hate. The ADL will offer policy considerations and an understanding of how internet hate develops, while the companies will focus on "technical solutions" that keep hateful behavior at bay.
Facebook tightens safeguards against hate-driven targeted ads
Facebook was caught more than a little off-guard when ProPublica discovered ads targeted at racists, and today it's taking steps to prevent those hate-filled ads from showing up again. The social network's Sheryl Sandberg has announced plans to tighten control of ads, including more human involvement. There will now be "more manual review" of ad targeting options to prevent promos based on hateful terms. Also, it's developing a program that will encourage you to report abuses directly -- you might not have to wait for a news story for Facebook to take action.
'Destiny 2' studio explains how a hate symbol made it into the game
Earlier this week, Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced that it had become aware of some armor in the game that looked a lot like a symbol used by white supremacists. The company apologized, noted that the symbols didn't represent its values and said the offending armor would be removed.
Neo-Nazi site Stormfront has been temporarily taken down
The post-Charlottesville removal of neo-Nazi content from various web sources continues to power on as the long-standing website Stormfront has, for now, been taken down. A Whois search shows that Web.com domain provider Network Solutions LLC has put a hold on the website and as the Knoxville News Sentinel reports, the hold prohibits the site from being updated, transferred or deleted. If the domain provider decides to delete Stormfront, any subsequent version hosted elsewhere would have to be recreated from scratch.
OkCupid just banned a white supremacist for life
OkCupid is the latest company to kick white supremacists off of its platform. In a tweet today, the dating service said that it found out Chris Cantwell -- the fascist featured in Vice News' Charlottesville documentary who cried in a video when he thought a warrant was issued for his arrest -- was on its site and subsequently banned him for life. It also said, "There is no room for hate in a place where you're looking for love," and told members to report people they come across who are involved in hate groups.
