Group publishing archival photos claims images showing traditional dress or ceremonies were deleted for allegedly containing nudity.
By Mostafa Rachwani for The Guardian on May 27, 2021
How has activism evolved in our digital society? In this episode of Sudhir Breaks the Internet, Sudhir talks to Jade Magnus Ogunnaike about the intersection of big tech and civil rights. She is a senior campaign director for Color of Change. It’s a racial justice organization that blends traditional organizing efforts with an updated playbook for how to make change.
By Jade Magnus Ogunnaike and Sudhir Venkatesh for Freakonomics on May 17, 2021
In this article for the Markup, Dara Kerr offers an interesting insight in the plight of TikTok’ers who try to earn a living on the platform. TikTok’s algorithm, or how it decides what content gets a lot of exposure, is notoriously vague. With ever changing policies and metrics, Kerr recounts how difficult it is to build up and retain a following on the platform. This vagueness does not only create difficulty for creators trying to monetize their content, but also leaves more room for TikTok to suppress or spread content at will.
Continue reading “At the mercy of the TikTok algorithm?”
A secretive algorithm that’s constantly being tweaked can turn influencers’ accounts, and their prospects, upside down.
By Dara Kerr for The Markup on April 22, 2021
In this piece for Markup, Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin expose how Google bans advertisers from targeting terms such as “Black lives matter”, “antifascist” or “Muslim fashion”. At the same time, keywords such as “White lives matter” or “Christian fashion” are not banned. When they raised this striking discrepancy with Google, its response was to fix the discrepancies between religions and races by blocking all such terms, as well as by blocking even more social justice related keywords such as “I can’t breathe” or “LGBTQ”. Blocking these terms for ad placement can reduce the revenue for YouTuber’s fighting for these causes. Yin and Sankin place this policy in stark contrast to Google’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Continue reading “Google blocks advertisers from targeting Black Lives Matter”
The Oversight Board has upheld Facebook’s decision to remove specific content that violated the express prohibition on posting caricatures of Black people in the form of blackface, contained in its Hate Speech Community Standard.
From Oversight Board on April 13, 2021
Het weren van beelden van Zwarte Piet past in het beleid van Facebook om racistische blackface-stereotypen op zijn platforms tegen te gaan. Dat oordeelt een externe raad bij wie gebruikers en Facebook zelf kunnen toetsen of iets terecht wordt verwijderd of niet.
By Pieter Sabel for Volkskrant on April 13, 2021
When a secretive start-up scraped the internet to build a facial-recognition tool, it tested a legal and ethical limit — and blew the future of privacy in America wide open.
By Kashmir Hill for The New York Times on March 18, 2021
The left must vie for control over the algorithms, data, and infrastructure that shape our lives.
By Meredith Whittaker and Nantina Vgontzas for The Nation on January 29, 2021
The article’s title speaks for itself, “Your iPhone’s Adult Content Filter Blocks Anything ‘Asian’”. Victoria Song has tested the claims made by The Independent: if you enable the “Limit Adult Websites” function in your iPhone’s Screen Time setting, then you are blocked from seeing any Google search results for “Asian”. Related searches such as “Asian recipes,” or “Southeast Asian,” are also blocked by the adult content filter. There is no clarity or transparency to how search terms are considered adult content or not, and whether the process is automated or done manually. Regardless of intention, the outcome and the lack of action by Google or Apple is unsurprising but disconcerting. It is far from a mistake, but rather, a feature of their commercial practices and their disregard to the social harms of their business model.
Continue reading “Filtering out the “Asians””
Facebook placed a number of leftwing organizers on a restricted list during Biden’s inauguration. It’s part of a much bigger problem.
By Akin Olla for The Guardian on January 29, 2021
The platform is overrun with hate speech and disinformation. Does it actually want to solve the problem?
By Andrew Marantz for The New Yorker on October 12, 2020
Lilian Stolk interviews internet policy consultant Joe McNamee on Facebook’s content moderation
By Lilian Stolk for The Hmm on November 16, 2020
Celeste Barber’s latest parody photo was flagged by the platform, but its algorithm’s prejudices aren’t a new problem.
By Lacey-Jade Christie for The Guardian on October 19, 2020
European Digital Rights (EDRi) recommendations to inform the European Commission Action Plan on Structural Racism.
By Petra Molnar and Sarah Chander for European Digital Rights (EDRi) on July 1, 2020
Moderatie: Het Facebookbeleid tegen Zwarte Piet begint behoorlijk op stoom te komen. Pro-pietenpagina’s worden hard geraakt, omdat tegenstander de berichten op deze pagina’s volop rapporteren. Toch is het de vraag of Zwarte Piet ooit helemaal van Facebook verdwijnt.
By Reinier Kist and Wilfred Takken for NRC on August 31, 2020
Facebook heeft een advertentie met cover van het feministische maandblad OPZIJ offline gehaald omdat deze overeenkomsten zou vertonen met een blackface-afbeelding. Op de cover van het tijdschrift prijkt de beeltenis van Dr. Abbie Vandivere. De wetenschapper haalde de wereldpers met haar ontdekkingen tijdens de restauratie van Vermeer’s Meisje met de parel voor het Mauritshuis. Vandivere is zwart en heeft op de foto haar lippen rood geverfd.
By Mark Koster for Villamedia on August 17, 2020
Nine philosophers explore the various issues and questions raised by the newly released language model, GPT-3, in this edition of Philosophers On.
By Amanda Askell, Annette Zimmermann, C. Thi Nguyen, Carlos Montemayor, David Chalmers, GPT-3, Henry Shevlin, Justin Khoo, Regina Rini and Shannon Vallor for Daily Nous on July 30, 2020
#IwanttoseeNyome outcry after social media platform repeatedly removes pictures of Nyome Nicholas-Williams.
By Nosheen Iqbal for The Guardian on August 9, 2020
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