Slashdot Mirror
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft Will Create 'Hash' Database To Remove Extremist Content (reuters.com)
bongey writes: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft are teaming up to create a common database to flag extremist videos and pictures. The database is set to go live in 2017. The system will not automatically remove content. Reuters reports: "The companies will share 'hashes' -- unique digital fingerprints they automatically assign to videos or photos -- of extremist content they have removed from their websites to enable their peers to identify the same content on their platforms. 'We hope this collaboration will lead to greater efficiency as we continue to enforce our policies to help curb the pressing global issue of terrorist content online,' the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. Each company will decide what image and video hashes to add to the database and matching content will not be automatically removed, they said. The database will be up and running in early 2017 and more companies could be brought into the partnership."
they'll censor whatever the fuck they want to.
Only 1 bit has to flip to create a mismatch on a cryptographic hash check, and if this system is widespread, doing so will become standard practice.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
My guess is that pretty soon they will create a Social Credit Score like China is putting in place. Then anyone who disagrees can instantly be silenced online. http://www.wsj.com/articles/ch...
People are stupid [...] I would send stormtroopers out regularly to round them [terrorists] up into camps.
Speaking of which...
they'll censor whatever the fuck they want to.
Dude, WTF? Wake up. ... It's freakin' FACEBOOK! They can and could always do whatever the f*ck they want! With your content, with your data, ... they could eben change their TOS to allow them to superimpose everyones portrait on animal porn images and there'd be nothing for you to do about it other than delete your account and and all your data and hope that no one downloaded those images to their computer or other parts of the intarweb.
I'd say FB and Twitter curbing hate-propaganda is actually the lesser evil. People who are dumb enough to post such stuff on FB are probably best kept from doing serious harm. To others *and* themselves.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I'm sure many of you have had the same thought but there is no way in hell this would be used merely for "extremist" content.
First off good luck consistently defining extremist. Sometimes it's obvious but sometimes it's a matter of perspective. There is no bright line test.
Second, sometime "extreme" viewpoints are merely sane ones being suppressed by another group. Fifty years ago people arguing peacefully for civil rights for minorities were considered "extremist" by our own government.
Third, you know for a fact that what this will actually be used for is cross site protection of copyrighted material that has nothing to do with any extreme viewpoints because the technology has more than one use. But it's easy to develop it to ostensibly combat "extremism" and then quietly use it for other purposes.
of everyone who thinks this system will ever only be used to flag and filter " extremist " content.
While I realize this will be a global system, I'm curious how this will butt heads with the First Amendment in the United States as this will inevitably be a system that will censor information that is embarrassing or uncomfortable to the chosen few who will decide what is " extremist".
So tired of everyone not understanding what the First Amendment is. Go read it. It's short and sweet. I'll even give you a hint: "Congress shall make no law..."
Tell me how this is any different than what China does, then. You might as well have a Ministry of Truth.
I'll be glad to tell you the difference. In China, the censorship is from the government; this article is referring to private businesses. Clear enough?
Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts between February and August this year and has expanded the teams reviewing reports of extremist content.
This is merely a mechanism to share what one mega-company has found "extreme" with another.
If we're really lucky, this will cause some folks to (shudder) lose a bit of respect for these places people spend their lives.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I'm curious how this will butt heads with the First Amendment in the United States as this will inevitably be a system that will censor information that is embarrassing or uncomfortable to the chosen few who will decide what is "extremist".
This won't butt heads with the First Amendment in the slightest, because the limitations it applies only applies to government entities, not private ones. You have no right to free speech on somebody else's private platform. They decide the rules and you are free to not use their service.
So any network gets to censor something, and they automatically censor it across other networks! I love it! ...As long as I get to drive.
"I know that every word that man just said is true, because it's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear." -- Space Ghost
Let the free market do it's job. If social media platforms try to filter out propaganda, create social media platforms that don't filter out propaganda. See which ones the people prefer.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
The issue is people will choose to go with whomever filters content they don't like and promotes content they do like even if it is wrong.
Just look at fox entertainment news.
To be fair MSNBC does the same damn thing.
Exactly. And the info bubbles will become info force fields. So you'll have two populations, one that is skewed slightly left of reality, and the other that is skewed to an alternate dimension where Donald Trump is competent enough to be President of the United States. Oh wait, we already have that.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Say goodbye to free speech on the internet. This all started because democrats lost the Presidency and painted "fake" news as the scapegoat. Who will decide what constitutes "fake" news? Google, Facebook, etc - giant left-leaning entities that have massive control over people's internet experience and the information they access. I can see dissenting view points increasingly characterized as "fake" and effaced.
In China, the censorship is from the government; this article is referring to private businesses. Clear enough?
As the Jakov Smirnoff joke goes, "In Soviet Union, the government controls the corporations".
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
I find it ironic, and kind of funny, that someone modded this down. If everyone had a right to have everything posted on social media we couldn't have a mod system to restrict viewing of their posts.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.