Facebook turns to artificial intelligence to fight hate speech as tensions run high in Myanmar
Stung by claims that it has fuelled ethnic violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, Facebook is stepping up efforts to prevent its network from being a source of hate speech and misinformation
Facebook has unveiled new efforts to combat hate speech and misinformation in Myanmar, where the social media platform has fuelled ethnic violence against the Rohingya population.
Facebook said in a blog post that employees travelled to Myanmar over the summer to better understand the situation.
It has also hired more than 60 Myanmar language experts to review content and plans to increase that to 100 by the end of the year.
Lawmakers, human rights activists and the United Nations have criticised the role Facebook has played in Myanmar’s crisis.
Facebook’s pledge to be more involved is part of its broader defence against the spread of controversial or false information on its network globally.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to hire more staff to review posts for hate speech.
But Facebook product manager Sara Su said that people alone are not able to catch all bad content. Much of Facebook’s effort relies on artificial intelligence (AI), which Zuckerberg has pointed to as a tool that social media companies can use to parse a high volume of posts and flag potential problems.