…As social media workers go home and hand over censorship to AI algorithms, with Orwellian results
Posts on Corona Virus are being deleted en masse by Facebook…
Related articles:
Spain has nationalized all of its private hospitals as the country goes into coronavirus lockdown
Facebook is wrongly blocking news articles about the coronavirus pandemic
Social media giants warn of AI moderation errors as coronavirus empties offices
Published on NCW, Mar 18, 2020; BBC News, Mar 17, 2020
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We have already been told of dozens of deletions. Users are told ‘your post violates our community standards on spam’, and ‘your post can now only be viewed by you’. They are then asked to respond: but the only option is to ‘disagree with the decision’ whereon FB tells them ‘Thank you; your response will help us in future’.
Users are particularly incensed that FB is systematically deleting any reference to Spain’s decision to nationalise private hospitals.
One suggested reason, backed up by this article from the BBC [see below], is that Facebook’s human staff have gone home for the duration and handed over the operation to algorithms.
The resulting distopian vision of an algorithmic future is yet another indication that rules about what can and cannot be distributed via the internet, must be made transparent, accountable and above all, put under the control of the public.
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According to BBC News, “Major websites are turning to automatic systems to moderate content as they tell their staff to work from home”
Social giants police web with AI as staff sent home
Published on the BBC News, Mar 17, 2020
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YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are all relying on artificial intelligence and automated tools to find problematic material on their platforms.
The tech giants admit this may lead to some mistakes – but say they still need to remove harmful content.
The coronavirus scare has led to a surge of medical misinformation across the web.
Google, which owns YouTube, said appeals about content wrongfully removed could take longer under the new measures.
Twitter, meanwhile, promised that no accounts suspended by automated software would be permanently banned without a human review.
Computer errors
Content review operations for Facebook, Twitter and Google are spread around the globe, including in the US, India and Spain.
All those countries have said employees should work from home – but switching the content review operation to remote working is complicated.
Facebook has sent home all its content reviewers until further notice, and says it is paying them during this time.
In a blogpost, Facebook said: “With fewer people available for human review we’ll continue to prioritise imminent harm and increase our reliance on proactive detections in other areas.”
Twitter said it would increase the use of machine-learning and automation but acknowledged they could “sometimes lack the context that our teams bring, and this may result in us making mistakes”.
As a result, it said it would not permanently ban any accounts based solely on automated systems.
And nearly all of Google’s full-time employees worldwide have been ordered to work from home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This means automated systems will start removing some content without human review,” YouTube said in a blog.
“As we do this, users and creators may see increased video removals, including some videos that may not violate policies.
“Our workforce precautions will also result in delayed appeal reviews.”
It added it would also be more cautious about what content gets promoted, including livestreams.
It comes at a time when the tech giants are being asked to ramp up their removal of coronavirus misinformation on their platforms.
The UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee has asked the government to explain why it has taken two months to set up a unit to counter the spread of disinformation about the virus.
MPs expressed concern that false narratives about coronavirus could undermine efforts to deal with the crisis.
