Facebook was recently caught censoring a link to a TEDx video in a private, Facebook messenger chat. When a Reddit user tried to send a link to Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald’s TEDx talk on improving early child development, Facebook refused to send the message because the action was "deemed abusive" or "was otherwise disallowed" according to a screenshot.
Facebook’s moderation tries to keep activity on its site in line with its terms of service. The community standards section of Facebook states that the site is against hate speech, violent and graphic content, adult nudity and sexual activity, sexual solicitation, and cruel and insensitive content. Like other sites, much of Facebook’s moderation is automated. The social media site has been criticized for this before. In August of 2018, Prager University found their videos were removed for alleged hate speech violations. The incident sparked a discussion over whether Facebook and other social media sites were unfairly censoring conservative voices. At the peak of the debate, Facebook restored the videos and apologized, stating that their automation had made a mistake.
In an interview with Vox, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the site does monitor private chats. When asked about ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, Zuckerberg said: “I remember, one Saturday morning, I got a phone call, and we detected that people were trying to spread sensational messages through – it was Facebook Messenger in this case – to each side of the conflict.” Facebook's attempts to manage both sides equally have created a situation where potentially or arguably dangerous rhetoric is treated the same as endeavors to create positive change. The confused AI that considered the TEDx video a Reddit user tried to link as dangerous might be a result of this.
Facebook’s monitoring of private chats comes across as another step against user privacy. While Zuckerberg says that it’s for the safety of its users, the site has done very little to fight the organization of dangerous groups and the spread of allegedly hateful messages on its website. Facebook, similar to Twitter, refuses to remove or block messages based on viewpoint or political opinion.
Facebook’s handling of data and people’s security opens doors for other, more private services to rise in popularity such as Minds.com and Gab.ai. But because Facebook already has such a large user base, it might be hard for people to deactivate their accounts or transition to a new service. For those looking to lessen Facebook's ability to monitor you, Mozilla’s Firefox has a plugin called Facebook Container that protects users from Facebook’s tracking by placing your Facebook account and activity into a separate space from the rest of your browsing. When activated, Facebook will take a couple of extra seconds to load, but your data will be safer overall. This won’t keep Facebook from moderating its messenger service, but plugins like this can help increase overall privacy on the web.
Source: Reddit
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