Facebook claims hate speech visibility dropped 50 p.c in 9 months | Engadget

Facebook is responding to whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony by trying to shift the narrative on hate speech. Integrity VP Guy Rosen has posted a protection of the social community’s anti-hate measures the place he argued the declining visibility of hate speech mattered greater than the mere existence of that content material. The “prevalence” (aka visibility) of hate on Facebook has dropped practically 50 p.c previously three quarters to 0.05 p.c of content material considered, Rosen mentioned, or about 5 views out of each 10,000.

The govt contended it was “wrong” to concentrate on content material removals as the one metric. There have been different methods to counter hate, Rosen mentioned, and Facebook needed to be “confident” earlier than it eliminated any materials. That meant erring on the facet of warning to keep away from mistakenly eradicating content material, and limiting the attain of individuals, teams and pages that may most likely violate insurance policies.

There is a level of fact right here. Facebook has often run into bother for mistakenly flagging content material as hate speech, and an aggressive elimination system may result in additional accidents. Likewise, hate will solely have restricted influence if few individuals ever see a given submit.

However, there’s little doubt Facebook is engaged in some spin. Haugen in her testimony asserted that Facebook can solely catch a “very tiny minority” of offending materials — that is nonetheless a difficulty if true, even when solely a small fraction of customers ever see the fabric. Rosen’s response additionally would not contact on Haugen’s allegations that Facebook resisted implementing safer algorithms and different efforts to reduce hateful and divisive interactions. Facebook could also be making important strides in limiting hate, however that is not Haugen’s level — it is that the social media agency is not doing sufficient.