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NYT: Lynchings Around the World are Linked To Facebook Posts (bostonglobe.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the New York Times:
Riots and lynchings around the world have been linked to misinformation and hate speech on Facebook, which pushes whatever content keeps users on the site longest -- a potentially damaging practice in countries with weak institutions and histories of social instability. Time and again, communal hatreds overrun the newsfeed unchecked as local media are displaced by Facebook and governments find themselves with little leverage over the company. Some users, energized by hate speech and misinformation, plot real-world attacks.
A reconstruction of Sri Lanka's descent into violence, based on interviews with officials, victims and ordinary users caught up in online anger, found that Facebook's newsfeed played a central role in nearly every step from rumor to killing. Facebook officials, they say, ignored repeated warnings of the potential for violence, resisting pressure to hire moderators or establish emergency points of contact... Sri Lankans say they see little evidence of change. And in other countries, as Facebook expands, analysts and activists worry they, too, may see violence.
A Facebook spokeswoman countered that "we remove such content as soon as we're made aware of it," and said they're now trying to expand those teams and investing in "technology and local language expertise to help us swiftly remove hate content." But one anti-hate group told the Times that Facebook's reporting tools are too slow and ineffective.
"Though they and government officials had repeatedly asked Facebook to establish direct lines, the company had insisted this tool would be sufficient, they said. But nearly every report got the same response: the content did not violate Facebook's standards."
A reconstruction of Sri Lanka's descent into violence, based on interviews with officials, victims and ordinary users caught up in online anger, found that Facebook's newsfeed played a central role in nearly every step from rumor to killing. Facebook officials, they say, ignored repeated warnings of the potential for violence, resisting pressure to hire moderators or establish emergency points of contact... Sri Lankans say they see little evidence of change. And in other countries, as Facebook expands, analysts and activists worry they, too, may see violence.
A Facebook spokeswoman countered that "we remove such content as soon as we're made aware of it," and said they're now trying to expand those teams and investing in "technology and local language expertise to help us swiftly remove hate content." But one anti-hate group told the Times that Facebook's reporting tools are too slow and ineffective.
"Though they and government officials had repeatedly asked Facebook to establish direct lines, the company had insisted this tool would be sufficient, they said. But nearly every report got the same response: the content did not violate Facebook's standards."
Someone won't get violent because of Facebook... The real issue is that governments and media LIE to us to avoid unrest and that facebook often shows the (uncensored) truth.
In Europe, we got many muslims coming "from Syria" (well, most are in fact NOT from Syria). This is not well accepted by a big part of the population... And this bring lots of problems... but...
- media only show those who are supportive of these "refugees". Although many (most ?) people don't want them here, the only people shown by media are those who help refugee, who hide them from the police, who "protect" them,... ... End 2016, there were massive sexual assaults in many cities of Europe around Xmas... The only place that showed up in the news was Köln... But (thanks to Facebook and other social media) we could learn that it also happenned in many other big cities, in Germany but also in Austria and other... ... many of these were mostly eradicated from our countries (leading to the anti-vaccination movement)... Most media don't talk about it (you need to get into specialized (medical) media to find some information)
- These refugee (and some muslims who were present before ?) commit many sexual assaults on women... Most of the time, it's hidden... Police don't even make some investigation (it's "useless"), media don't talk about it,
- Many health problems are coming with these "refugees"... Scabies, Polio, measles, tuberculosis,
- increased criminality thanks to the refugees... but media coverage is only limited to a few acute problems (like what happened in Calais)...
Facebook, Google+, youtube and other let people talk... There have been videos posted on youtube of riots made by these "refugees" in a big city... while there was no news coverage... The above mentioned problems have been made visible to many people, ...
It's not the social media that did create these fact... they just suppresed the censorship imposed to "normal" medias... they allowed people to see what really happened... But those taking action are usually people from the places where the problems arised... who didn't need the social media to know about these problems...
The root of the problem is that politician DON'T WANT TO FACE THE PROBLEM... they want to leave it for whoever will succeed them... so they try to hide the problems, to prevent people from talking about it... What generate the violence is both these initial problems and the behaviour of politicians... If it was not uncovered by Facebook, it'd be uncovered by other way... maybe a little later... but it'd eventually happen... And things could get worse as the unrest would have lasted longer.