The Tech companies were being accused them of not doing enough to address the dangers that young users encounter on their platforms. These dangers were detailed as ranging from exposure to sexual predators to the alarming rise in teen suicides due, according to a report by NDTV. 

Amidst the questioning, Zuckerberg tried to defend the impact of social media on the mental health of young people. He cited research claiming the boons of balance, stating that social media was not bad to their well-being if used in balance. 

Prior to the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Meta, formerly known as Facebook and now come to include Facebook and Instagram both, has shared that a dedicated workforce of 40,000 employees is going to be actively engaged in strengthening online safety measures. Moreover, the tech giant stated that a large financial sum will be allotted to enhance safety measures on the platform. According to reports, both Meta and X unveiled a series of new measures aimed at proactively addressing concerns related to online safety. 

Seated behind the five tech executives at the hearing were families who shared heart-breaking stories of their children self-harming or taking their own lives due to social media. At present, there is a proposal for a law in the US Congress which aims to make social media companies more accountable for the content posted on their platforms. The atmosphere was not one that would favour or grant leniency to the CEOs present. 

A Republican Senator Ted Cruz had asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after showing him how an Instagram prompt gave users a warning that they may see child sexual abuse and asks if they would like to see the ‘results anyway.’ “Mr Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” 

Mark Zuckerberg replied saying that, “it’s often helpful to, rather than just blocking it, to help direct them towards something that could be helpful.”

Furthermore, in conversation with Republican Senator Josh Hawley, Zuckerberg was asked if he would like to apologise to the families sitting behind them at the hearing. He stood up and stated, “I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through, it’s terrible. No-one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.” But onlookers and activists are not happy with these words. According to Associated Press, a former senior staff member who testified to the US Congress in November 2023, named Arturo Béjar, told the BBC that Meta is trying to put the responsibility to give a safe environment to teenagers to the parents. 

Al Jazeera reported that Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of Design It For Us, a youth-led coalition advocating for safer social media told the publication that, “These companies have had opportunities to do this before. They failed to do that, so independent regulation needs to step in.” 

Earlier last year, Sabrang India had reported how activists in India have criticised Facebook for not being interested to undertake measures to make the platform more hate free and safe for its users. Similarly, there have also been accusations against the social networking giant of being more “lenient” to excesses done by people associated with the party that forms India’s ruling government, the BJP. 

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The post Social media giants summoned at US Senate hearing for internet safety appeared first on SabrangIndia.

We’ve seen false and misleading content about the Israel-Hamas conflict spread rapidly on social media. This increases paranoia, anxiety, and violence around the world.

I’m demanding answers from major platforms about their content moderation efforts.

— Michael Bennet (@SenatorBennet) October 17, 2023

According to the Reuters report, there have been reports about how these tech companies have faced growing criticism for their handling of such content in the wake of the ongoing conflict, with older, dated visuals, video game footage, and even altered documents being shared widely since the violence has broken out in the conflicted land on October 7. An analysis by Newslaundry has highlighted that fact-checkers have been confronted with a humongous rise in unverified information in the wake of the conflict. The analysis also points out to several observers saying that the social media site X has enabled this surge.

Furthermore, Senator Bennet has asserted that, “Deceptive content has ricocheted across social media sites since the conflict began, sometimes receiving millions of views,” Bennet expressed in a letter addressed to the company top brass. He has further noted that the algorithms used by these platforms have, in many instances, further worsened the spread of misleading content, contributing to a concerning cycle of outrage, engagement, and further sharing.

In his letter, Senator Bennet has posed these series of questions to Meta, TikTok, and Google, seeking detailed information about their content moderation practices and he has requested responses from the tech giants by October 31.

According to reports, the social media giants have taken some steps in response to the conflict. TikTok has reportedly announced that it has hired more Arabic and Hebrew-speaking content moderators. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, stated that it removed or marked as disturbing over 795,000 pieces of content in Hebrew or Arabic within the first three days following the Hamas attack. X and YouTube have also reported the removal of harmful content.

However, Senator Bennet has argued that, in light of the growing human catastrophe, these actions are insufficient. He pointed out, “The mountain of false content clearly demonstrates that your current policies and protocols are inadequate.”

“These decisions contribute to a cascade of violence, paranoia, and distrust around the world,” Senator Bennet asserted. “Your platforms are helping produce an information ecosystem in which basic facts are increasingly in dispute, while untrustworthy sources are repeatedly designated as authoritative.”

Back in February, the Indian Express reported that the IT Ministry had engaged in talks with top social media companies, like Meta and Google, to recognise network fact checkers in India. These fact-checkers would be responsible for flagging and debunking misinformation on social media platforms. However, this fact-checking, according to the report, would not pertain to information according to the Union government. The opposition alliance, INDIA, has also reportedly written to Meta and Google earlier this year about ‘communal hatred’ after an investigative piece by Washington Post highlighted alleged that social media sites took a biased approach to the content favouring the BJP.

A letter by INDIA parties to @Facebook‘s Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, highlighting the recent investigations by the @washingtonpost.

The findings expose the role of Facebook and WhatsApp in aiding the communal hatred campaign of the ruling BJP. pic.twitter.com/6z2z8Bxzbq

— Congress (@INCIndia) October 12, 2023

Similarly, according to a report by SabrangIndia, earlier this month, after the release of Meta’s second human rights report, Indian activists broadly criticised it on the basis that it lacks a concrete plan to address the issues in India. It has pointed out the report’s failure to demonstrate significant, measurable progress in addressing human rights concerns in India or presenting clear strategies to prepare for the 2024 general elections.

Furthermore, what is alarming is news of social media sites aiding this misinformation campaign inadvertently through their policies. The European Union has for instance publicly called on X, Meta, and Facebook to address the issue of false information on their platforms. EU’s Thierry Breton earlier last week made a scathing criticism of social media companies in a strongly worded letter, and has demanded more stringent measures to combat disinformation during the escalating conflict.

However, industry researchers and experts, according to this report, are sceptical and unhopeful of this being sufficient to address the task at hand. Their concern is especially related to X because while, X has been in the news for removing hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas with its CEO, Linda Yaccarino detailing the company’s efforts to combat illegal content, mentioning that they have taken action to “remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content.” Nonetheless, a former employee who had worked with X’s team expressed doubts about the platform’s ability to effectively address this problem. Furthermore, the CBC report also pointed out that X had intentionally reduced its capacity to handle such issues, particularly after it decided to downsize its Content Moderation team. The entire content management team which looked after misinformation on the social media site was reportedly laid off in October 2022 after Elon Musk took over Twitter. “There aren’t as many people involved in the ecosystem whose day-to-day job was connected to tackling disinformation,” she said.

Senator Bennet has also criticised the four companies for downsizing their teams over the past year which have been responsible for monitoring false and misleading content. X, in particular, cut 15% of its trust and safety staff in November 2022, and further reductions were made last month. Meta reduced 100 similar positions in January, while Google scaled back a team working on countering online hate speech and disinformation by a third.

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The post After EU, US senator raises concerns about misinformation to Google, X, Meta appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The video

TikTok is a video app that allows users to garner an audience by posting attention-grabbing short-form videos. A concept progeniture of Vine, it has about 500 million users and is widely popular among teenagers.

In her TikTok video, eyelash curler in hand, Feroza says, “Hi guys, I’m going to teach you guys how to get long lashes.” She uses the curler for a few seconds as part of the farce, then while still using the tone of a makeup artist/influencer, she begins to urge people to google China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in concentration camps set up in North West China.

She states in the video that the people imprisoned in these camps have been kidnapped, raped and beaten, as well as forced to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of their faith. While ending the video, Feroza says “People who go into these concentration camps don’t come out alive. This is another Holocaust, and yet, nobody is talking about it. Please be aware, and please spread awareness,” and makes one last reference to eyelash curling.

In an email to Indian Express, Aziz said that her TikTok videos tried to make light of the racism and discrimination she experienced growing up in the United States, such as being told that they would marry bin Laden.
 

China and Uighur Muslims

In a leak of official documents made to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – an international body with 17 media partners – it has come to light that about a million people of mostly Muslim Uighur descent have been detained without trial in detention camps constructed in China’s north-west region of Xinjiang. 

This directly goes against China’s claim of the camps being made for voluntary re-education as a mild and benevolent campaign to fight Islamic extremism.

The New York Times published 403 pages of internal documents in relation to this issue, in what it called “one of the most significant leaks of government papers from inside China’s ruling Communist Party in decades.”

No faith in the red flag

A spokesman for TikTok’s parent company Byte Dance claimed Aziz had been blocked from her TikTok account for posting a video containing an image of Osama bin Laden from a previous account, thereby violating TikTok’s policies against terrorist content.

However, the direct, unyielding power that the Chinese government seems to have over Chinese companies has been a cause of concern for a while. China’s government rigidly controls its own internet while it exerts influence, sometimes subtly, over the activities of private businesses.

A leaked report noted that the country can easily shut off Philippines’ power grid at any time, owing to the 40% stake in the Chinese Power Grid Corporation has in Philippines grid system.

TikTok, in particular, has recently come under fire from the American government and is currently under review of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for being a potential security risk.

Alex Zhu, head of TikTok, denied accusations of Chinese surveillance and control, stating that even ByteDance could not control TikTok’s policies for managing video content in the United States

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