Thursday, May 30, 2013

Facebook to Try to Quash Hate Speech

Summary of Article: Facebook is part of a campaign to try to quash violence against women on the web, specifically imagery of rape, violence and abuse against women. Facebook must walk a thin line when it comes to censoring hate speech. If it censors too much, it could anger users; if it doesn't censor enough, it could offend other users and alienate advertisers. Facebook finds violations of its hate speech policy by asking users to flag questionable activity; moderators then review the flagged items and decide on a case-by-case basis. They also rely on computer algorithms to find questionable content. Facebook also doesn't allow users to post questionable content anonymously. One reason this campaign may be successful is because the majority of social media users are women; this campaign is geared toward protecting women. This has advertisers attention.

Discussion with Kids:

  • Are you familiar with Facebook? Sometimes people post hurtful things on Facebook. Facebook wants to stop people from posting hurtful things that could really truly hurt someone, especially girls. What is an example of something hurtful that should not be on Facebook? 
  • How does Facebook find out who is posting hurtful things? (See above)
  • How do people know if their comments are not ok on Facebook? (There is a policy that anyone can read that says what is and isn't allowed on Facebook.) 
  • Speak about fine line between free speech and censorship for violations of hate speech. 
  • What type of speech do you think should be prohibited on Facebook? 

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