hatespeech
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Facebook removes Pages of two groups run by Richard Spencer
Earlier this week, during his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mark Zuckerberg responded to a question from Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) about hate groups by saying, "We do not allow hate groups on Facebook, overall. So, if there's a group that their primary purpose or a large part of what they do is spreading hate, we will ban them from the platform, overall." But while that may be the policy, it has proven to be a bit difficult to implement. Following that testimony, Vice News found that a number of organizations the Southern Poverty Law Center considers to be hate groups still had Facebook presences, including two linked to white nationalist Richard Spencer. After Vice approached the platform about them, Spencer's Pages were taken down.
Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook's response to Myanmar conflict
Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of keeping too quiet on the many issues affecting Facebook recently, so Myanmar activists were surprised when they received a personal response from the chief exec following their open letter criticizing his approach to hate speech in their conflict-stricken country.
Snapchat reinstates Giphy stickers following removal of racist GIFs
Last month, both Snapchat and Instagram pulled Giphy stickers from their apps after users discovered a racist GIF with a slur. At the time, Giphy said that it had removed the GIF in question and fixed the bug that let it through. It also said it would be reviewing all of its GIF stickers manually. Last week, Instagram reinstated Giphy stickers and now, so has Snapchat.
Facebook knows it must do more to fight bad actors
Not everything at SXSW 2018 was about films or gadgets. A few blocks away from the Austin Convention Center, where the event is being held, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) hosted a number of panels for its Innovation Policy Day. In a session dubbed "Fighting Terror with Tech," Facebook's Lead Policy Manager of Counterterrorism, Brian Fishman, spoke at great length about what the company is doing to keep bad actors away from its platform. That doesn't only include terrorists who may be using the site to communicate, or to try to radicalize others, but also trolls, bots and the spreading of hate speech and fake news.
Facebook bans hate group Britain First
Where is the line between free speech and expressing your views versus hate speech? That's the question that social networks have been grappling with for years, and it's only getting worse. Today, Facebook banned the alt-right group Britain First, which "repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups," according to a release from the social network today.
Ubisoft clamps down on 'Rainbow Six: Siege' hate speech
It's not just Blizzard taking more aggressive steps to fight toxic behavior. Ubisoft has revealed that it's implementing an upgraded system for banning players who use hate speech in Rainbow Six: Siege matches. The developer now tracks how often players are reported using hate speech and issues bans accordingly, ranging from 2 days for the lightest uses to a permanent ban for the most egregious offenders. And if you do get a ban, Ubisoft won't beat around the bush -- it'll tell you that the ban was due to "toxicity."
Twitch clarifies its updated guidelines in new FAQ
Last month, Twitch announced that it would be updating its community guidelines in order to clarify its policies on harassment, hate speech and sexual content. But while they were initially set to go into effect on February 19th, Twitch decided to push that date back to March 5th in light of all of the questions it received over the new guidelines. At the time, Twitch said, "It's important [the guidelines] are clear to everyone and we need to better explain some sections, so we're pushing back enforcement to start March 5." It also said it was working on an updated FAQ regarding the guidelines, and today, Twitch released it.
Europe asks social networks to remove terrorist content within an hour
The European Commission published new guidelines for social networks today and among them is a request for these sites to remove reported terrorist content within one hour. In 2016, the Commission called for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to put a more concerted effort into removing hate speech from their platforms and since then, it has been fairly pleased with the companies' improvements. Last June, the four companies together were able to review 51 percent of hate speech reports within 24 hours and in January, the Commission reported that their rate had bumped up to 81 percent. But the Commission is concerned about terrorist content in particular and is now asking these companies for an even quicker turnaround when reviewing this type of material.
Twitter asks for help fixing its toxicity problem
Twitter has definitely come under a lot of fire in recent years for issues ranging from not doing enough to stop harassment on its platform to allowing foreign actors to sow political discord. In the past, the company has tweaked its tools, giving individuals more options when it comes to controlling what they're exposed to online, as well as updated its guidelines a handful of times. But today, Twitter announced it's trying out another route -- asking people outside of the company to propose ways that it can promote healthy, open and civil conversations online.
YouTube bans Neo-Nazi group following backlash over hate speech
YouTube has banned the Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen, but only after a Daily Beast report shamed the platform for its inaction. Since the Logan Paul fiasco, YouTube introduced a stricter content policy and (somewhat) more serious consequences for content that harms the community, but it took reports from ProPublica, Vice and The Daily Beast in the last week before Atomwaffen was banned.
UK government has its own AI for detecting extremist videos
Stemming the tide of extremist online content has been a major focus for tech giants in recent times, but despite their efforts, the UK parliament has condemned companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for "consciously failing" to take robust enough action. To mitigate the problem, the Home Office has developed its own AI program that can detect Islamic State (IS) propaganda online with a 99.99 percent success rate.
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.
Twitch updates policies on hate speech, harassment and sexual content
The fight against online hate speech and harassment continues to gain momentum. Twitter's new policies against such behavior went live last November, while Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg began the new year with a new pledge to combat abuse and hate, too. Now video game live-streaming platform Twitch has updated its community guidelines to be clearer about what constitutes harassment, hate speech, and sexual content, which are all already prohibited. The new rules will go into effect February 19th at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.
EU says social media is getting better at blocking hate speech
In 2016, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube signed on to a European Union code of conduct, agreeing to review all reports of hate speech on their platforms within 24 hours and taking down flagged posts if necessary. The EU has kept close tabs on the companies' performances since signing and today EU officials reported that the tech giants had improved substantially since May of last year. "Today's results clearly show that online platforms take seriously their commitment to review notifications and remove illegal hate speech within 24 hours," said European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip.
Twitter: Banning world leaders would ‘hide important information’
In a blog post today, Twitter made an attempt at clarifying its stance on how political figures and world leaders use its platform. Many have called for the site to block Donald Trump as he has repeatedly tweeted violent and threatening posts, and Twitter has often stumbled through its explanations of why it hasn't done so. In its post today, the company says that blocking leaders or deleting their tweets would ultimately limit important conversations. "Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate," it said. "It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions."
Germany's hefty hate speech fines for social networks start today
Starting today, Germany will fine social networks up to to €50 million (roughly $58 million) should they fail to remove posts containing hate speech within 24 hours, or seven days for "complex cases." The law, known as the Network Enforcement Act (or NetzDG), went into effect in October, but provided a grace period through the end of 2017.
Facebook apologizes for its moderation 'mistakes'
With over 2 billion users and counting, policing Facebook is an increasingly difficult task. The unenviable job rests on the shoulders of a 7,500-strong team of content moderators (alongside the site's algorithms), who scour through tons of unsightly posts, ranging from violent terrorist material to images of child abuse. Unsurprisingly, they don't always get it right (in part due to Facebook's ambiguous guidelines). And so, yet another report of hateful material slipping through the site's cracks has emerged, this time from ProPublica.
Facebook introduces new tools to fight online harassment
Facebook has been rightfully criticized for how it has handled (or not handled) harassment and abuse in the past. But today, the company announced a couple of new tools aimed at fighting online harassment and giving users more control over who can interact with them.
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.
Facebook reveals how it handles harassment inside US offices
Facebook has been publicly searching for a solution to harassment, hate speech and bullying on the site for years -- and at the same time, less publicly, the company has been honing its internal approach to these subjects. Today, Facebook published its US harassment policy, in full, in an attempt to "be as transparent as possible, share best practices, and learn from one another -- recognizing that policies will evolve as we gain experience," according to COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP of People Lori Goler.
