Facebook reviews ‘race-blind’ hate speech policy

NEW YORK: In order to emphasise blocking slurs against blacks, Muslims and those who have traditionally faced bigotry, Facebook has agreed to revise its hate speech algorithms, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The move is expected to change the so-called race-blind” structure of the social network that has eliminated anti-white remarks and excised harmless comments from people of colour, the Post said.

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According to internal records published by the publication, the reform is at an early stage and seeks to target speech called “the worst of the worst”, including insults against blacks, Muslims, members of more than one race, the LGBTQ community and Jews.

The new framework suggests that insults against white people or men would be described as “low-sensitivity” and not removed immediately, the article said.

The move comes as Facebook faces criticism from civil rights organisations who have long complained that very little is done by the social network to police hate speech.

About 1,000 advertisers entered a boycott of Facebook earlier this year to condemn the treatment of hate speech and disinformation.

Around the same time, Republicans who say the sites are skewed toward conservatives have even brought the business and its competitor Twitter to task on Capitol Hill.

Twitter said on Wednesday that it was widening its concept of hateful material to prohibit language on the grounds of race, ethnicity or national origin that “dehumanises” people.

Twitter said that when identified, it would delete offending tweets, and gave examples such as identifying a certain ethnic community as “scum” or “leeches”

Tags: Facebook