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According to documents from a former Facebook employee obtained by The Associated Press, Facebook has struggled to curb hateful content in India.
These documents were a part of files handed over to Congress and provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Frances Haugen, who happens to be a former Facebook employee and whistleblower.
The Facebook whistleblower told US senators that the social media juggernaut promotes divisiveness, hurts children, and urgently needs to be controlled, prompting promises that Congress will take long-delayed action.
The documents from 2019 to March 2021 show Facebook has not been able to keep up with misinformation and hateful content in India. The Associated Press reported that Facebook has known about the issues for years. The documents raise questions about if enough has been done to get rid of such content online.
One of the issues which were highlighted was that Facebook did not have enough moderators who spoke Hindi or Bengali to stop misinformation or hateful content.
The company labelled the languages as priorities for “automation on violating hostile speech.”
In 2019, one employee created a completely new Facebook account in India to see what someone would see recommended on their feed with no prior bias, reports AP. He said the account, which was live for three weeks, became “a near-constant barrage of polarising nationalist content, misinformation, and violence and gore.”
The content that the employee received contained fake news.
Facebook has “invested significantly in technology to find hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali,” the company told The Associated Press, which “reduced the amount of hate speech that people see by half” in 2021.
Haugen recently disclosed reams of internal information to authorities and The Wall Street Journal, testified on Capitol Hill, fueling one of the company’s most serious crises yet. Haugen said that she believes that Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.
According to documents from a former Facebook employee obtained by The Associated Press, Facebook has struggled to curb hateful content in India. These documents were a part of files handed over to Congress and provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Frances Haugen, who happens to be a former Facebook employee and whistleblower. The Facebook whistleblower told US senators that the social media juggernaut promotes divisiveness, hurts children, and urgently needs to be controlled, prompting promises that Congress will take long-delayed action. The documents from 2019 to March 2021 show Facebook has not been able to keep up with misinformation and hateful content in India. The Associated Press reported that Facebook has known about the issues for years. The documents raise questions about if enough has been done to get rid of such content online. One of the issues which were highlighted was that Facebook did not have enough moderators who spoke Hindi or Bengali to stop misinformation or hateful content. Also read | ‘Facebook weakens our democracy, harms kids’: Top quotes from whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony The company labelled the languages as priorities for “automation on violating hostile speech.” In 2019, one employee created a completely new Facebook account in India to see what someone would see recommended on their feed with no prior bias, reports AP. He said the account, which was live for three weeks, became “a near-constant barrage of polarising nationalist content, misinformation, and violence and gore.” The content that the employee received contained fake news. Facebook has “invested significantly in technology to find hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali,” the company told The Associated Press, which “reduced the amount of hate speech that people see by half” in 2021. Haugen recently disclosed reams of internal information to authorities and The Wall Street Journal, testified on Capitol Hill, fueling one of the company’s most serious crises yet. Haugen said that she believes that Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.