Facebook unwittingly generates extremist content
The online network Facebook unknowingly generates extremist content for jihadist groups and other extremist users, according to research by experts.
As the National Whistleblowers Center explained in a complaint on Thursday, experts from the organization spent five months investigating the Facebook pages of 3,000 members who had links to groups classified as terrorist by the US government or showed sympathy towards them.
The researchers found that the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) and the terrorist network Al-Qaeda are "openly" active on the network. In addition, the Facebook software automatically creates "reminder" and other videos for extremist websites as soon as they have collected enough "likes".
The network's efforts to ban terrorist content were "weak and ineffective", according to a 48-page summary of the investigation findings. Even more worrying is the fact that Facebook itself unknowingly creates and promotes extremist content with its technology.
In a response to the criticism, Facebook stated that content related to terrorism was now being removed with a "much higher success rate than two years ago". The company does not claim that it "finds everything", but remains "vigilant" in its efforts against terrorist groups around the world. (SDA)
