Facebook and Google Are Going To War Against
Hate Speech
Offending posts will be deleted within 24 hours
Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft
have agreed to work with European officials to crack
down on hateful speech published on their
respective platforms. Each company has agreed to
review potentially problematic posts and remove
offending content within 24 hours.
“The recent terror attacks have reminded us
of the urgent need to address illegal online hate
speech,” Vĕra Jourová, EU Commissioner for
Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, said in a
joint statement from the European Commission and
the participating companies. “Social media is
unfortunately one of the tools that terrorist groups
use to radicalize young people and racist use to
spread violence and hatred.”
The new partnership comes after Facebook,
Twitter, and Google agreed to erase hate speech
from their platforms within 24 hours in Germany, an
attempt to address racism following the refugee
crisis. That agreement, which Reuters reported last
year, also made it easier for individual users to
report hateful speech.
Under the new code of conduct, technology
companies will have clear rules in place for
reviewing content that may be deemed malicious or
hateful. The document also says the companies
should be responsible for educating their users on
the types of content that are disallowed.
Tech companies assure that the recently
announced code of conduct won’t interfere with
freedom of speech. “We remain committed to letting
the Tweets flow,” Karen White, Twitter’s head of
public policy for Europe, said in the statement.
“However, there is a clear distinction between
freedom of expression and conduct that incites
violence and hate.”
(Time Magazine, May 31, 2016)
Glossary: hate speech – discurso de ódio; to
agree: concordar; to erase: apagar; partnership
– parceria.
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