{"id":1731,"date":"2021-11-27T09:41:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T08:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/27\/opinion-how-is-facebook-doing-on-civil-rights-depends-whom-you-ask-the-washington-post\/"},"modified":"2021-11-27T09:41:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T08:41:59","slug":"opinion-how-is-facebook-doing-on-civil-rights-depends-whom-you-ask-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/27\/opinion-how-is-facebook-doing-on-civil-rights-depends-whom-you-ask-the-washington-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | How is Facebook doing on civil rights? Depends whom you ask. &#8211; The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>How is Facebook doing on civil rights? <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2021\/11\/civil-rights-audit-progress-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the company<\/a>, it is moving forward on its \u201cpath to enhance protections for marginalized communities.\u201d According to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2021\/11\/21\/facebook-algorithm-biased-race\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> published in The Post this week, the starting line was even further back than previously believed.<br \/>Facebook in 2018 hired independent auditors to review racial issues on its platform; in 2020, those auditors issued a report criticizing the company\u2019s policy decisions in the area as a \u201ctremendous setback.\u201d Now Facebook is touting revised rules on hate speech, improved representation of minorities in its workforce and a fortified civil rights team dedicated to designing products with vulnerable populations in mind. The company, which recently changed its corporate name to Meta, has <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2021\/11\/inclusive-products-through-race-data-measurement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">also pledged<\/a> to more effectively measure whether people\u2019s experiences with its technology, including the machine-learning tools used for moderating content, differ across race. That\u2019s all encouraging, especially in light of an investigation in this newspaper suggesting that Facebook previously withheld this sort of data \u2014 perhaps from the auditors themselves.<br \/>The Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2021\/11\/21\/facebook-algorithm-biased-race\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that researchers at Facebook discovered the platform\u2019s race-blind policies were disproportionately harming minorities. The \u201cworst of the worst\u201d language on the site was removed less often when it targeted these populations, and more often when it targeted White people and men. The problem, in part, is that, without intervention, algorithms tend to amplify the features of the society they\u2019re learning from. So the researchers recommended that Facebook tailor the tool to focus only on five groups \u2014 those who are Black, Jewish, LGBTQ, Muslim or of multiple races \u2014 deemed to be in special need of protection. Executives pushed back, concerned about backlash from \u201cconservative partners\u201d but also worried that groups not afforded deliberate attention, such as women, would suffer because of the change.<br \/>These events have provided more fuel for Facebook\u2019s critics. But the story is also an example of just how difficult it is to build artificially intelligent systems that treat people fairly. There\u2019s always the question of fair to <i>whom<\/i>. Legislators have set their regulatory sights on the machine-learning models that power platforms: proposing to deprive companies of their immunity from being sued for material posted by third parties if it is algorithmically promoted, or otherwise to prevent algorithms from \u201cdiscriminating.\u201d Yet these rules could end up dissuading sites from just the sort of curation urged by those who desire more robust consideration for minorities \u2014 or from curation at all.<br \/>The point is not that Facebook has chosen correctly, but that choosing correctly is hard to do. Moreover, restricting firms\u2019 freedom when it comes to content moderation can hurt as much allowing too much<i> <\/i>freedom. The treatment for harms of all types that it can do, including with regard to civil rights, must avoid blunt-force prohibitions and focus instead on careful and transparent study of automated systems\u2019 effects. This is exactly what Facebook is already promising, but what in the past it has failed to deliver.<br \/>Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/the-posts-view\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Editorial Board<\/a>, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.<br \/><b>Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: <\/b>Editorial Page Editor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/fred-hiatt\/\">Fred Hiatt<\/a>; Deputy Editorial Page Editor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/karen-tumulty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Karen Tumulty<\/a>; Deputy Editorial Page Editor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/ruth-marcus\/\">Ruth Marcus<\/a>; Associate Editorial Page Editor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/jo-ann-armao\/\">Jo-Ann Armao<\/a> (education, D.C. affairs); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/jonathan-capehart\/\">Jonathan Capehart<\/a> (national politics); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/lee-hockstader\/\">Lee Hockstader<\/a> (immigration; issues affecting Virginia and Maryland); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/charles-lane\/\">Charles Lane<\/a> (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/stephen-stromberg\/\">Stephen Stromberg<\/a> (elections, the White House, Congress, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/david-e-hoffman\/\">David E. Hoffman<\/a> (global public health, human rights and democracy issues); and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/molly-roberts\/\">Molly Roberts<\/a> (technology and society).<br \/>Opinion<span class=\"pl-xxs\">\u2022<\/span><br \/>Opinion<span class=\"pl-xxs\">\u2022<\/span><br \/>Opinion<span class=\"pl-xxs\">\u2022<\/span><br \/>The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.<br \/>By signing up you agree to our<!-- --> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/terms-of-service\/2011\/11\/18\/gIQAldiYiN_story.html\" class=\"gray-dark font--meta-text font-xxxxs mt-xxs pb-lgmod\" tabindex=\"-1\">Terms of Use<\/a> <!-- -->and<!-- --> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/privacy-policy\/2011\/11\/18\/gIQASIiaiN_story.html\" class=\"gray-dark underline hover-inherit\" tabindex=\"-1\">Privacy\u00a0Policy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/11\/26\/how-is-facebook-doing-civil-rights-depends-whom-you-ask\/\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How is Facebook doing on civil rights? According to the company, it is moving forward on its \u201cpath to enhance protections for marginalized communities.\u201d According to an article published in The Post this week, the starting line was even further back than previously believed.Facebook in 2018 hired independent auditors to review racial issues on its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}