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Amazon 'Reviewing' Its Website After It Suggested Bomb-Making Items (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon said on Wednesday that it was reviewing its website after a British television report said the online retail giant's algorithms were automatically suggesting bomb-making ingredients that were "Frequently bought together." The news is particularly timely in Britain, where the authorities are investigating a terrorist attack last week on London's Underground subway system. The attack involved a crude explosive in a bucket inside a plastic bag, and detonated on a train during the morning rush. The news report is the latest example of a technology company drawing criticism for an apparently faulty algorithm. Google and Facebook have come under fire for allowing advertisers to direct ads to users who searched for, or expressed interest in, racist sentiments and hate speech. Growing awareness of these automated systems has been accompanied by calls for tech firms to take more responsibility for the contents on their sites. Amazon customers buying products that were innocent enough on their own, like cooking ingredients, received "Frequently bought together" prompts for other items that would help them produce explosives, according to the Channel 4 News.
If that's the case, then it's not a problem. You're just showing ads for plastic buckets to people who don't want to build a bomb. I suspect the worry is that the algorithm might actually be working. In which case it's still not a problem. Once you have the recipe for a plastic bucket bomb, finding the bucket isn't a major obstacle.
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that they are frequently bought together ?
If so, that should be a big clue as to who is building them.
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Looks like you're building a pipe bomb. Would you also like some acid to throw in white women's faces in case it doesn't go off? How about a fidget spinner in case both of your attacks fail?
Amazon thinks I now have very strange collections of things that you never need more than one of, like cable modems and whole-house dehumidifiers...
I should put something clever here. Maybe someday.
You can still get "The Anarchist Cookbook" on Amazon, which is the number one bestseller in Anarchism.
In recent days amazon has been found to be deleting reviews of Hillary Clinton book that are negative - they justify this by saying that "no one could have read the book that fast" yet they don't block the great reviews from people who have had the same amount of access to the book as the negative reviewers.
If you take away the ability of people to speak freely, leaving them with the perception of censorship***, they will find other, very terrible ways to communicate their thoughts...and suggesting bombs at the same time is something that is actually genuinely frightening.
***I know amazon is not a government and therefore cant "censor" but it can give the perception thereof because of the sheer power they do hold.
The algorithm isn't faulty. It works exactly as designed. But it is also completely blind to the deeper meaning of the result. Take this as a cautionary tale against all software-augmented decision making. Software is not inherently fair and impartial. It just blindly follows a rigid set of rules that don't include any moral values. And sometimes, the developer may have even made the rules intentionally malicious.
To be fair, it sounds like yet another case of pattern matching without human level oversight working too well. If you want actual bugs look at the fake baby registry emails sent out yesterday in mass.
I bought a few rolls of duct tape from amazon and it suggested cable ties, rope and heavy duty tie down loops. How many people need to buy a full kidnap kit from amazon for this to register as "Items frequently bought together"?
If you live somewhere with a "tyrannical government" just how likely are you to be shopping for bomb making materials on Amazon? Even if you could put in the order, do you really think you'd ever get your shipment delivered? I mean, it's not the 5 gallon pail that's the active ingredient here.
Let me say it again: if you are shopping on Amazon for bomb parts and you reasonably believe your shipment will be delivered, you are a terrorist. At least in the minds of almost everyone else living around you. Because if you lived somewhere that actually wasn't free, you wouldn't a) have Amazon to shop at, and b) have a hope in hell that your real bomb parts would be delivered.
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This story is a bit misleading and sensationalist. The "gunpowder" they refer to isn't anything any modern gun would use. It's not nearly so strong. Instead it's the raw ingredients for the centuries-old black powder, which needs extensive processing in order to make black powder from these ingredients. Just mixing them will do nothing. (I've made black powder multiple times, using ingredients from the hardware store.)
The other item they refer to as "explosive" is metal powder, which Burns with a bright light. This has been used for camera flashes from the 1800s until recently. It's not a very good way to make a bomb, though anything that burns quickly will build up pressure if it's put into a metal container. If you wanted to build a bomb, though, you'd use high explosive, not flash powder. Your local Walmart, Walgreens, or Home Depot carries the materials for MUCH more dangerous explosive, which is easier to make than black powder.
Or Kinder Surprise...
The power of modern comes from nitroglycerin, the same explosive used in Dynamite. It's a "high explosive", meaning it detonates, explodes all by itself.
Black powder, on the other hand, merely burns quickly. Black powder is very finely powdered charcoal very thoroughly mixed with oxygen-rich saltpetre. The oxygen in the saltpetre helps the charcoal burn faster. Charcoal is hard to light, so a little sulfur is added to make it easier to light. (The hard part is grinding them into a fine enough powder and mixing them so thoroughly that practically every molecule of charcoal is touching a molecule of saltpetre, and doing this grinding and mixing without setting it off.)
A pile of black powder won't explode. When black powder gets interesting is when it's burned inside a closed container. The resulting fumes increase pressure in the container, until the container bursts open (or the pressure sends a musket ball down the barrel).
So you're basically right, you just got the two switched.
Something that explodes by itself (detonates) is called a high explosive. Modern powder contains high explosive. Something that just burns fast, possibly causing it's container to burst, is called a low explosive.
I've made a lot of black powder. It's fun. I made a few MILLIGRAMS of high explosive once. I won't do that again. High explosives are not to be played with.