Associations criticize the bad moderation Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – Le Figaro

SOS Racisme SOS Homophobia and the Union of Jewish Students of France denounced the inefficiency of the control of the main social networks on violent content.

silencing hate on the Internet always proves difficult. The association SOS Racisme SOS Homophobia and the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) released a study Thursday deploring “the ineffectiveness of hate content moderation systems” on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. For two weeks, activists of these organizations have reported 586 contained racist, anti-Semitic, revisionist or homophobic. The three analyzed social networks do not react the same way to reported unwanted content. Facebook has removed 34% of the 156 reported when YouTube content withdrew 4% of the 205 reported content. Finally, Twitter has removed only 4% of reported tweets or accounts, making the site “the actor being the least complied with its legal obligations and its own terms and conditions,” according to the associations.

identity Theft, harassment, child pornography, nudity … The low efficiency of restraint systems well beyond the key only hateful content. On social networks, users are free to publish freely. Moderation Publications is a posteriori and only on the basis of content posted by users. These reports date back to the moderation centers that verify if they break the law or rules of use. When she is done, intervention often occurs late. Suicide this week of a young woman of 19 who had announced his intentions in several videos on Periscope, questions the reactivity of moderation services and especially their relevance in an emergency.

Disparaged for laxity and opacity of their moderation, social networks seek to clarify their practices. Facebook is regularly accused of removing more quickly the nude photos that incitement to hatred speech. The former CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, had even admitted early 2015 that Twitter was “no one to handle online harassment.” Also accused of lack of firmness facing the jihadi propaganda, social networks have strengthened their cooperation with the authorities , particularly since the attacks of January 2015 against Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher. The Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had visited the United States to meet with leaders of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter and claim a “better coordination in the fight against terrorist propaganda and recruitment on the Internet.” Web giants are meeting regularly since at Matignon to report on their progress.

To remedy the laxity of restraint systems, including associations demanding an end to the “algorithmic confinement.” In other words, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are called to change their recommendation algorithms, responsible for suggesting the most likely content to please the user based on their interests. Thing the Web giants are reluctant to do for many years on behalf of industrial secrecy and freedom of expression. “It seems that these platforms prefer to censor pictures of breasts rather than calls to murder against homosexuals, Arabs or Jews. So they explain their choices, “said Dominique Sopo, president of the UEJF.