hatespeech
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Twitter is making excuses for allowing hate speech
Twitter sure is having a hard time explaining and enforcing its policies around hate speech. Earlier this week, the company responded to Trump's retweet of violent anti-Muslim propaganda, telling Engadget that some videos may remain up if they are newsworthy or of public interest. Today, Twitter changed that position, saying that, instead, the tweets in question are still on the service because they are permitted based on the company's current media policy.
Twitter: Suspension of New York Times account was human error
Twitter has fumbled yet again. Over the weekend, the platform temporarily locked a New York Times account for violating its rule against hateful conduct, but the tweet in question, a report on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's apology over the treatment of native people in Newfoundland and Labrador, was rather unoffending -- further muddying what will and won't get you suspended by the platform. The account was fully restored about a day later and Twitter has said that the suspension was the result of human error.
Tesla hit with another lawsuit claiming a racist work environment (updated)
Tesla is the subject of another lawsuit regarding racism in the workplace, Bloomberg reports. An employee has filed a suit against the company saying that Tesla's production floor is a "hotbed for racist behavior," and that over 100 employees have experienced racial harassment. In the complaint, which was filed today, they said, "Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at the forefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operating procedure at the Tesla factory is pre-Civil Rights era race discrimination."
Twitter's new hate and violence policies go into effect November 22nd
Just a couple of weeks ago, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey responded to the #WomenBoycotTwitter movement on his company's microblogging platform with a promise to help Twitter "take a more aggressive stance" toward hate speech and sexual harassment. A few days after that, an internal email showed that the company was taking the promises seriously and widening its crackdown on violent groups and abusive content. The company just tweeted that its new policies will launch on November 22nd.
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.
Black lawmakers call on Facebook and Twitter to purge racist ads
Facebook and Twitter are facing renewed calls from US lawmakers to ensure ads on their respective platforms aren't used to spread hate. The two firms are currently cooperating with Congressional investigators looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. And now, black Congress members are urging them to probe new ads, and make leadership changes. In a letter obtained by Recode, Reps. Robin Kelly, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Emanuel Cleaver further press the companies to clamp down on ads "aimed at inciting racial discontent" or "voter suppression." They also suggest the companies appoint people of color to their boards of directors, and conduct new audits of targeted advertisements.
Germany enacts law limiting online hate speech
Germany's law combating hate speech on social media is now live. It's the country's attempt to get social networks to remove offensive posts within 24 hours (or seven days, if the content is difficult to evaluate). Those that fail to comply may be fined up to 50 million euros ($58 million) by the country's Ministry of Justice, though they'll get a grace period until January 1st, 2018, to prepare.
EU tells tech companies to curb hate speech or face consequences
The European Union (EU) has proposed a raft of new measures to tackle online hate speech, telling social media companies that they can expect legal consequences if they don't get rid of illegal content on their platforms. Despite companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google pledging to do more to fight racist and violent posts, the European Commission says they're not acting fast enough, and that it's prepared to initiate a rigorous framework to hold them to account.
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.
Twitter also has a problem with ads targeted towards hate speech
ProPublica found that Facebook allows ads to be targeted at users based on antisemitic keywords and BuzzFeed has reported that Google similarly allows ads to be targeted through racist and hateful phrases. So, it probably shouldn't be a surprise at this point that it turns out Twitter is laden with similar issues.
Google has targeted ads based on hate speech, too
Yesterday, ProPublica released a report on its investigation into the sorts of ad categories Facebook makes available to advertisers. It found that the website allowed it to target ads to users based on categories like "Jew hater" and "How to burn jews" among other antisemitic options. Today, BuzzFeed reports that Google has a similar problem.
UK says online hate crime is as serious as offline offences
The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) today laid out a renewed commitment to tackling hate crime, including making sure that online offences are being dealt with appropriately. In its public statements, the CPS affirmed that cases of digital hate crime will be treated "with same robust and proactive approach used with offline offending," and that there is no difference in the serious of such crimes.
Options for neo-Nazis on the internet are starting to shrink
If you're an American who's ever wondered what it would be like to have had the internet and today's technology during the time of Nazi ascension in Germany, take a look around. You're soaking in it. While a whole lot of us have been aware of this since at least last year's election, it's only now starting to sink in for companies who control the internet. Bitterly, only after the literal killing of people in the streets by white supremacists. Who, until this week, enjoyed using online services for their organizing, sharing, harassing, business needs and getting hateful shit done.
Facebook shut down an internal forum because of harassment
Last year Facebook was home to an internal forum spouting sexist and racist comments, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider. The forum, called FB Anon, was set up in May 2015 for employees of the company to voice their opinions of the workplace freely and anonymously. But in the month's leading up to President Trump's election it was increasingly populated by right-leaning staff and, according to Mark Zuckerberg, used to harass others. The group was abruptly shut down in December 2016. These reports come during an increasingly challenging time for tech companies. In the wake of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, where violence resulted in the death of one protestor and injuries for many others, companies have taken a zero-tolerance approach to hate speech. GoDaddy and Google have revoked domain registrations for neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, crowdfunding sites have pulled campaigns supporting white supremacists and social media platforms have banned whole groups expressing violent alt-right ideologies.
GoFundMe shuts down campaigns for Charlottesville suspect
Crowdfunding platforms are taking a no-tolerance approach to campaigns raising money in support of James Fields, the man accused of driving a car into protesters at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. GoFundMe has already removed "multiple" campaigns for Fields. Speaking to Reuters, strategic communications director Bobby Whithorne said: "Those campaigns did not raise any money and they were immediately removed." He added that GoFundMe will delete similar campaigns if more are created.
Facebook is still terrible at managing hate speech
Facebook has failed yet again at managing and removing hate speech. Ijeoma Oluo, a black activist and writer, was on a road trip with her children recently when she decided to make a meal stop at a Cracker Barrel. While at the restaurant, which has been sued numerous times for racially discriminatory practices and has paid millions of dollars to settle such cases, Oluo jokingly tweeted, "At Cracker Barrel 4 the 1st time. Looking at the sea of white folk in cowboy hats & wondering 'will they let my black ass walk out of here?'"
Germany can fine Facebook up to $57 million over hate speech
Germany has passed a contentious law allowing fines of up to €50 million ($57 million) for social networks like Facebook and Twitter if they don't pull hate speech down quickly enough. Called the Network Enforcement Act or "Facebook Law," it was passed by Germany's parliament on Friday, and will go into effect starting this October.
Report details Facebook’s bizarre logic on hate speech
Facebook has more than two billion users, and ensuring that the discussion between them remains civil is an understandably difficult task. But, if evidence found by ProPublica is true, the company's own policy on hate speech may cause unreasonable disparities in how comments are moderated. The report claims that Facebook has built a comment moderation policy that protects "white men from hate speech, but not black children."
Facebook talks about how hard it is to deal with hate speech
Earlier this month, Facebook announced a "Hard Questions" series that would enable the company to talk more openly about difficult issues of personal privacy in the online sphere. The end goal was to be more transparent about the difficult questions it faces because, often, there are no right or easy answers. Today, Facebook debuted its second installment in the series, tackling the issue of hate speech. Facebook, through Richard Allan, their VP of Public Policy for Europe, the Middle East and Asia, makes very clear that "We are opposed to hate speech in all its forms, and don't allow it on our platform." But part of the problem of dealing with the issue of hate speech is defining what it is -- something that's easier said than done. "People who live in the same country -- or next door -- often have different levels of tolerance for speech about protected characteristics."
German police raided 36 homes over social media hate speech
Late last year, Germany proposed a bill that would fine social media providers, such as Facebook and Twitter, for failure to remove hate speech within 24 hours on their respective platforms. Now, Germany has raided the homes of 36 people accused of posting hate speech or other illegal content.
