{"id":2573,"date":"2022-01-26T20:36:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T19:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2022\/01\/26\/facebooks-unglamorous-mistakes-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2022-01-26T20:36:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T19:36:49","slug":"facebooks-unglamorous-mistakes-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2022\/01\/26\/facebooks-unglamorous-mistakes-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook\u2019s Unglamorous Mistakes &#8211; The New York Times"},"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>Advertisement<br \/>Supported by<br \/>the on tech newsletter<br \/>Facebook\u2019s little mistakes have big consequences, too. (But only for us.)<br \/><strong>Send any friend a story<\/strong><br \/>As a subscriber, you have <strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">10 gift articles<\/strong> to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.<br \/><span class=\"byline-prefix\">By <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\" itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/shira-ovide\" class=\"css-mrorfa e1jsehar0\">Shira Ovide<\/a><\/span><br \/><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection of <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/column\/on-tech\" title=\"\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">past columns<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">.<\/em><br \/>In a Facebook group for gardeners, the social network\u2019s automated systems sometimes <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lifestyle-technology-oddities-business-gardening-9c9f431f91ba450537974758de4f14d2\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">flagged discussions about a common backyard tool<\/a> as inappropriate sexual talk.<br \/>Facebook <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/trending\/facebook-flags-aboriginal-names-as-not-authentic-1.2970993\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">froze the accounts of some Native Americans<\/a> years ago because its computers mistakenly believed that names like Lance Browneyes were fake.<br \/>The company repeatedly <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/11\/style\/disabled-fashion-facebook-discrimination.html\" title=\"\">rejected ads<\/a> from businesses that sell clothing for people with disabilities, mostly in a mix-up that confused the products for medical promotions, which are against its rules.<br \/><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/company\/facebook-inc\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a>, which has renamed itself Meta, and other social networks must make tricky judgment calls to balance supporting free expression while keeping out unwanted material like imagery of child sexual abuse, violent incitements and financial scams. But that\u2019s not what happened in the examples above. Those were mistakes made by a computer that couldn\u2019t handle nuance.<br \/>Social networks are essential public spaces that are too big and fast-moving for anyone to effectively manage. Wrong calls happen.<br \/>These unglamorous mistakes aren\u2019t as momentous as deciding whether Facebook should kick the former U.S. president off its website. But ordinary <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/22\/business\/reactivate-facebook-account.html\" title=\"\">people<\/a>, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-11-27\/facebook-s-ai-mistakenly-bans-ads-for-struggling-businesses?sref=Qk91czAc\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">businesses<\/a> and groups serving the public interest like <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/29\/business\/youtube-novara.html\" title=\"\">news organizations<\/a> suffer when <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/subject\/social-media\" title=\"\">social networks<\/a> cut off their accounts and they can\u2019t find help or figure out what they did wrong.<br \/>This doesn\u2019t happen often, but a small percentage of mistakes at Facebook\u2019s size add up. The Wall Street Journal <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/inside-facebook-jail-trump-the-secret-rules-that-put-users-in-the-doghouse-11620138445\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">calculated<\/a> that Facebook might make roughly 200,000 wrong calls a day.<br \/>People who research social networks told me that Facebook \u2014 and its peers, although I\u2019ll focus on Facebook here \u2014 could do far more to make fewer mistakes and mitigate the harm when it does mess up.<br \/>The errors also raise a bigger question: Are we OK with companies being so essential that when they don\u2019t fix mistakes, there\u2019s not much we can do?<br \/>The company\u2019s critics and the semi-independent Facebook Oversight Board have repeatedly said that Facebook needs to make it easier for users whose posts were deleted or accounts were disabled to understand what rules they broke and appeal judgment calls. Facebook has done some of this, but not enough.<br \/>Researchers also want to <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/2021\/10\/05\/facebook-research-data-haugen-congress-regulation\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">dig into Facebook\u2019s data<\/a> to analyze its decision making and how often it messes up. The company tends to oppose that idea as an intrusion on its users\u2019 privacy.<br \/>Facebook has said that it\u2019s working to be more transparent, and that it spends billions of dollars on computer systems and people to oversee communications in its apps. People will disagree with its decisions on posts no matter what.<br \/>But its critics again say it hasn\u2019t done enough.<br \/>\u201cThese are legitimately hard problems, and I wouldn\u2019t want to make these trade-offs and decisions,\u201d said <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.evelyndouek.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Evelyn Douek<\/a>, a senior research fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve tried everything yet or invested enough resources to say that we have the optimal number of errors.\u201d<br \/>Most companies that make mistakes face serious consequences. Facebook rarely does. <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.uw.edu\/directory\/faculty\/calo-ryan\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Calo<\/a>, a professor at the University of Washington law school, made the comparison between Facebook and building demolition.<br \/>When companies tear down buildings, debris or vibrations might damage property or even injure people. Calo told me that because of the inherent risks, laws in the U.S. hold demolition companies to a high standard of accountability. The firms must take safety precautions and possibly cover any damages. Those potential consequences ideally make them more careful.<br \/>But Calo said that laws that govern responsibility on the internet didn\u2019t do enough to likewise hold companies accountable for the harm that information, or restricting it, can cause.<br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s time to stop pretending like this is so different from other types of societal harms,\u201d Calo said.<br \/><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Losing touch with the world: <\/strong>A volcanic eruption and tsunami destroyed Tonga\u2019s communications lines and made it <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/17\/world\/asia\/tonga-volcano.html\" title=\"\">difficult for outsiders to know what was happening<\/a> in the Pacific island nation or coordinate emergency help, my colleague Natasha Frost reports. MIT Technology Review also looks at what it will take to <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2022\/01\/18\/1043790\/tongas-volcano-internet-reconnected\/?utm_source=nextdraft&amp;utm_medium=email\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">repair Tonga\u2019s single undersea internet cable<\/a> and satellite internet connections, both of which may have been damaged.<br \/><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">One man\u2019s journey into the QAnon conspiracy theory, and back out: <\/strong>A Brooklyn man named Justin spoke to NBC News about how his family, the violence of last year\u2019s Capitol riot, and rejecting a blanket distrust of people <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/internet\/qanon-jan-6-changed-one-persons-path-rcna11276\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">helped him slowly pull away from conspiracy theories<\/a>.<br \/><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">A government website that works! <\/strong>The U.S. Postal Service started taking online orders on Tuesday to ship free Covid tests to Americans\u2019 homes. More than a million people went to the government website at one point on Tuesday, and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/18\/us\/politics\/government-website-covid-tests.html\" title=\"\">it mostly worked fine<\/a>, my colleagues Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Lola Fadulu report.<br \/><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Related from 2021:<\/strong> <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/24\/technology\/government-tech.html\" title=\"\">To build trust in the government, it would help if the website works<\/a>.<br \/>This <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MeaghanDerynck\/status\/1483256373592961025?t=v3pVx8HTmR3DYxAYKODG9w&amp;s=09\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">kiddo shoveling snow is exhausted<\/a> (DEEP SIGH), and wants to tell you all about it.<br \/><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you\u2019d like us to explore. You can reach us at <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"mailto:ontech@nytimes.com?subject=On%20Tech%20Feedback\" title=\"\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">ontech@nytimes.com.<\/em><\/a><br \/><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">If you don\u2019t already get this newsletter in your inbox, <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/newsletters\/signup\/OT\" title=\"\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">please sign up here<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">. You can also read <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/column\/on-tech\" title=\"\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">past On Tech columns<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">.<\/em><br \/>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/19\/technology\/facebook-moderation-mistakes.html\">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>AdvertisementSupported bythe on tech newsletterFacebook\u2019s little mistakes have big consequences, too. (But only for us.)Send any friend a storyAs a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.By Shira OvideThis article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection of past columns.In a Facebook [&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-2573","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\/2573","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=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}