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Former Instagram CEO: Policing social media is important to the future of the world
Instagram co-founder and former CEO Kevin Systrom said it is important for the future of the world that social media companies be policed well and seriously address the issues of misinformation and harassment on their services.
Systrom said Russian meddling in U.S. elections and the exploitation of Facebook user data by Cambridge Analytica have highlighted just how big social media companies have become and the implications of their reach.
[...] In particular, Systrom highlighted "deepfakes," which are highly-believable doctored videos that are beginning to make their way onto social services. This emerging type of fake content will be among the next set of problems social media companies will have to contend with, he said. "It's getting on the margin of real," Systrom said. "In an era when you can distribute information widely to the world very, very quickly and amplify it, what happens when you think some political figure said something they didn't?"
Facebook says it's creating an independent body to help it decide which content to remove
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said the company will establish an independent body to oversee user appeals of content removal, one day after a bombshell report that detailed how the company avoided and deflected blame in the public conversation around its handling of Russian interference and other misuses of its social network.
The move could help Facebook avoid accusations of bias as it removes material deemed problematic, like fake news and hate speech. Some conservative groups and lawmakers have accused Facebook and other social media outlets of censoring politically conservative points of view, a charge that Facebook denies.
See also: Facebook confirmed Mark Zuckerberg's beef with Apple CEO Tim Cook in an official company statement
Mark Zuckerberg reportedly ordered all Facebook executives to use Android phones
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:20AM
Russian influence, if real at all, was negligible. We have a mole hill, put under a microscope, and made to look like a mountain. A few feeble actions with insignificant results have been banged up into a major threat. The only reasonable reaction to those small actions would have been a few small covert actions taken to ensure that future attempts don't succeed.
Instead, we have a media giant setting up a police force. Judge, jury, and executioner, all combined into one small agency, "independent" of - whom, exactly? Independent of Facebook? That one gets a LOL. Independent of - users, I would imagine. And, stockholders, maybe. Someone does something, outrage ensues, users and stockholders alike tell Facebook to "Do something!" And, Facebook replies, "Well, the independent police force is working on it, we think, we hope."
Meanwhile, this old dude on Madison Avenue has a card table with a pea on it. He takes some half walnut shells, and hides the pea, then swiftly moves that pea around on the table, then asks you to guess which shell hides the pea. Let us focus on those walnut shells, shall we?