Messenger Platform Release September 2018
Both Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google have currently paused political ads after the presidential election as part of measures to police misinformation and other abuses.
Both Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google have currently paused political ads after the presidential election as part of measures to police misinformation and other abuses.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Both Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google have currently paused political ads after the presidential election as part of measures to police misinformation and other abuses.
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Facebook Inc said on Monday it would provide academic researchers information on how political ads were targeted in the lead-up to the presidential election in the United States last year.
The social media giant said the data would include targeting criteria, such as location and interests, selected by advertisers running social issue, electoral or political ads.
Also Read | Twitter grants academics full access to public data, but not for suspended accounts
Academics and researchers can apply for access to this information through the Facebook Open Research & Transparency (FORT) platform on Feb. 1, Facebook said in a blog post, adding that the data package would cover more than a million ads that ran between Aug. 3 and Nov. 3.
Both Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google have currently paused political ads after the presidential election as part of measures to police misinformation and other abuses.
Facebook has been under pressure to combat more hate speech.
Angela Lang/CNET
Facebook, Reddit, Discord and Steam received low grades from the Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday for the handling of Holocaust denial content on their platforms. The ADL issued the report to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The ADL, an advocacy group focused on fighting antisemitism and hate, gave the four platforms Ds in a report card based on a range of criteria, including whether they had policies against Holocaust denial content and how difficult such content was to find on their platforms. The group said it also reported Holocaust denial content from “non-official accounts” in January to see how these companies enforced their rules. Enforcement was weighted more heavily in the grade, the ADL said in the report.
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A total of nine companies were evaluated by the ADL and no platform earned an A. Twitch, a live video streaming service, got a B, the highest grade given. Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Roblox received Cs. While both Twitch and Facebook have rules against Holocaust denial content, Twitch took action against reported content while Facebook didn’t, the report said. The ADL cited several examples of Holocaust denial content that was reported to Facebook, including videos with captions such as “Holohoax tales.” The group received a message from Facebook stating the videos didn’t violate its rules but noted the content could be offensive.
“In recent years, content denying the Holocaust has appeared on an array of social media platforms, largely because those companies have not been nimble enough or taken the issue seriously,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “While some platforms have finally stepped up their efforts to stop the amplification of denial, others are still struggling to address antisemitism and Holocaust denial effectively.”
The report raises questions about how well Facebook and other platforms are enforcing their rules against Holocaust denial content specifically. The ADL helped organize a campaign last year that urged advertisers to pause spending on Facebook ads to pressure the company to do a better job of combating hate speech. The group recommends the platforms enforce its rules against Holocaust denial consistently, provide more information to users about how content moderation decisions are made and change products so they’re focused more on user safety.
A Facebook spokesperson said the company disagreed with the grade it received. The social network said starting on Wednesday people who search for terms associated with the Holocaust or Holocaust denial will get a message directing them to credible information about the genocide. The message says “the Holocaust was the organized persecution and killing of 6 million Jewish people, alongside other targeted groups, by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.” It encourages users to visit a website about the Holocaust.
“We don’t agree — we’ve made major progress in fighting Holocaust denial on Facebook by implementing a new policy prohibiting it and enforcing against these hateful lies in every country around the world,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We’ve removed the content mentioned in this report and will continue working to keep Holocaust denial off of our platform.”
Facebook banned Holocaust denial content in October. In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, sparked outrage after he said that Holocaust denial content shouldn’t be removed from the social network because he didn’t think “that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.” He then said in an October Facebook post “his thinking evolved” after he saw data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence.
Reddit said it removed the content cited in the ADL report. “Reddit’s site-wide policies prohibit any content that incites violence or promotes hate based on identity or vulnerability, including Holocaust denial content,” a Reddit spokeswoman said in a statement. The company also “quarantines” communities that share offensive content including posts that deny the Holocaust happened. That means users have to click through a warning to view this content.
Discord said in a statement it views Holocaust denial content as “deeply harmful” and it doesn’t allow it on its service. The company has an internal policy against that type of content and said it would take action against the content found by the ADL. Twitch and TikTok said hateful conduct isn’t allowed on its platform either. “We work closely with experts in the fields of hate speech, including anti-semitism, to ensure our policies are comprehensive and are pleased to see that our efforts to keep this content off our service are having a measurable impact,” a Twitch spokesperson said.
TikTok said it continually updates its policies and systems to combat hateful behavior. “We welcome guidance from experts like the ADL as we strive to promote a safe community environment,” a company spokeswoman said.
Twitter didn’t immediately have a statement. Google-owned YouTube, Steam and Roblox didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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