Linked List: August 29, 2020

Saturday, 29 August 2020

The Guardian: ‘Facebook Algorithm Found to “Actively Promote” Holocaust Denial’ 

Mark Townsend, reporting for The Guardian earlier this month:

An investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a UK-based counter-extremist organisation, found that typing “holocaust” in the Facebook search function brought up suggestions for denial pages, which in turn recommended links to publishers which sell revisionist and denial literature, as well as pages dedicated to the notorious British Holocaust denier David Irving. […]

Last Wednesday Facebook announced it was banning conspiracy theories about Jewish people “controlling the world”. However, it has been unwilling to categorise Holocaust denial as a form of hate speech, a stance that ISD describe as a “conceptual blind spot”.

This is a strong report that doesn’t mince words, except for a big euphemism right in the headline. It’s not Facebook’s algorithm that is “actively promoting” Holocaust denial, QAnon, and other dangerous rightwing rallying cries, but Facebook itself. The “algorithm” is Facebook; Facebook is what it promotes and recommends.

Facebook’s Kenosha Guard Militia Event Was Reported 455 Times But Moderators Deemed It Fine 

Ryan Mac, reporting for BuzzFeed News:

In a companywide meeting on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that a militia page advocating for followers to bring weapons to an upcoming protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, remained on the platform because of “an operational mistake.” The page and an associated event inspired widespread criticism of the company after a 17-year-old suspect allegedly shot and killed two protesters Tuesday night.

The event associated with the Kenosha Guard page, however, was flagged to Facebook at least 455 times after its creation, according to an internal report viewed by BuzzFeed News, and had been cleared by four moderators, all of whom deemed it “non-violating.” The page and event were eventually removed from the platform on Wednesday — several hours after the shooting.

“To put that number into perspective, it made up 66% of all event reports that day,” one Facebook worker wrote in the internal “Violence and Incitement Working Group” to illustrate the number of complaints the company had received about the event.

So it’s not like this event got lost in the firehose of Facebook’s massive scale. It actually dominated Facebook’s reporting mechanism.

As Mac reported separately, employees are protesting and asking Zuckerberg tough but obvious questions:

“At what point do we take responsibility for enabling hate filled bile to spread across our services?” wrote one employee. “[A]nti semitism, conspiracy, and white supremacy reeks across our services.”

The answer, apparently, is at no point. Mac’s piece concludes:

One employee who spoke with BuzzFeed News after the event was not comforted by their CEO’s words. “He seems truly incapable of taking personal responsibility for decisions and actions at Facebook,” they said.

I’m past the point where I could look past a stint at Facebook on a job applicant’s resume. Trying to get a job at a legitimate tech company after staying at Facebook through 2020 will be like trying to get a job at a legitimate news publication after a stint at Fox News.

‘Black Panther’ Star Chadwick Boseman Dies of Cancer at 43 

Reggie Ugwu and Michael Levenson, writing for The New York Times:

A statement posted on Mr. Boseman’s Instagram account said the actor had learned in 2016 that he had Stage 3 colon cancer, and that it had progressed to Stage 4. His publicist confirmed that he died in his home in Los Angeles, with his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, and family by his side.

“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” the statement said. “From ‘Marshall’ to ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ August Wilson’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy.”

Mr. Boseman was a private figure by Hollywood standards and rarely publicized details about his personal life. He found fame relatively late as an actor — he was 35 when he appeared in his first prominent role, as Jackie Robinson in “42” — but made up for lost time with a string of star-making performances in major biopics.

What a shock. What an amazing talent.

Yesterday was, coincidentally, Jackie Robinson Day across MLB — every player on every team wore Robinson’s 42.