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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 24 2017, @12:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the seven-words-you-can't-say-on-the-internet? dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The Internet can be an ugly place — one where the mere act of expressing an opinion can result in a barrage of name-calling, harassment and sometimes threats of violence.

Nearly half of U.S. Internet users say they have experienced such intimidation; a third say they have resisted posting something online out of fear, according to the nonprofit Data and Society Research Institute. Women, particularly young women and women of color, are disproportionately targeted.

Now Google is zeroing in on the problem. On Thursday, the company publicly released an artificial intelligence tool, called Perspective, that scans online content and rates how "toxic" it is based on ratings by thousands of people.

For example, you can feed an online comment board into Perspective and see the percentage of users that said it was toxic. The toxicity score can help people decide whether they want to participate in the conversation, said Jared Cohen, president of Jigsaw, the company's think tank (previously called Google Ideas). Publishers of news sites can also use the tool to monitor their comment boards, he said.

[...] Google's troll-fighting efforts trail that of other tech companies and nonprofit groups. Earlier this month, Twitter — which has developed a reputation as a playground for abuse — launched new tools to cut on trolling.

[...] Asked whether the site could result in censoring free speech, Cohen said that the software tool wasn't intended to bypass human judgment, but to flag "low-hanging fruit" that could then be passed on to human moderators.

Because speech should only be free if it's polite and you agree with it.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/02/23/google-fights-online-trolls-with-new-tool/


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  • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Friday February 24 2017, @08:59PM

    by art guerrilla (3082) on Friday February 24 2017, @08:59PM (#471315)

    "...absolutist free speech is directly hurting too many people..."
    who ?
    where ?
    and, most interestingly to me, HOW ? ? ?
    no, *some* people are TAKING OFFENSE to words, whether 'hateful' or not...
    that is NOT 'directly hurting'...
    PLEASE STOP MAKING ASSAULTS UP when there are far too many all too real assaults...

    oh, you've been subject to online threats, etc...
    *yawn*
    out of curiosity, just how were you 'directly hurt' ? ? ?
    do you have emergency room records ? ? ?
    was there blood ? ? ?
    was there vomiting, constipation, OR diarrhea, hot flashes, OR cold sweats, hair loss, a blister, or perhaps a hangnail ? ? ?
    please, i don't want to hear some psychobabble; imagine this, i, too, have been subject to 'hate speech', threats, etc, i have indeed had a couple moments of discomfort, anger, and not a little bit of *gasp* hatred...
    that is NOT being 'directly hurt', that is taking offense (rightfully or wrongfully is another matter) at a hurtful comment or bombastic threat of nearly no existential consequence...
    here, i will prove it, i am about to broadcast hate rays from my brain at precisely 4:00 PM EST directed at bro1... *obviously*, kidz, this is a VERY dangerous practice, and should NEVER be tried at home... even though i hate doing this and reducing bro1 to a small pile of waxy blobs and smelly wet ashes, that is what happens when you mess around with unregulated hate-rays emanating from just anybody about anything...
    okay, only two minutes until 4:00, you might want to sit down, bro1, sorry, but this is an important lesson for everyone...
    *UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

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