Elections Commission, Fb working to bar hate speech
View(s):The Elections Commission has set up a fast track with Facebook in a bit to monitor and bar harmful messages during the period of the Presidential election.
“Facebook will take down – based on their community standards – messages that are harmful during this period,” Prof Rohan Samarajiva told the Business Times.
He said that since last year’s riots in Kandy there is a concern on harmful messages in social media, especially Facebook. Facebook officials had also several sessions with media personnel this year with regard to their community standards and what harmful messages are. Prof. Samarajiva said that since May 2018 the Information, Communication and Technology Agency (ICTA) of which he is the chairman started discussions relating to hate speech policy and social media. “In the advice that it has given, the ICTA has said that the rapidity of takedowns of the hate speech posts should be fast,” he said.
In its community standards, Facebook elaborates that “Facebook removes hate speech, which includes content that directly attacks people based on their: race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases.”
ICTA has been serving as a knowledge resource for government on the policy issues related to social media, including participation at Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security and Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on Legal Affairs and Media. “This included advice on how hate speech and disinformation is dealt with in other jurisdictions, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Germany,” Prof Samarajiva said.
While recognising that it has no authority over content, ICTA has sought to facilitate conversations among all the relevant stakeholders, he said adding that this included a Public-Private Dialogue on Platforms organised in early April 2019 that addressed among other matters, issues of intermediary liability.
“This was organised in cooperation with International Trade Centre. Late in 2018, we also provided space for an exchange of ideas between Facebook’s Global Vice President Monika Bickert and local social media influencers in November 2018.”
The charter that was released on October 4 was a way of communicating do’s and don’ts rather than as a regulatory act.
“It was done in collaboration with My First Vote (https://www.facebook.com/myfirstvotesrilanka/) and at the request and with the approval of the Elections Commission.
Here, the guidance is broader than hate speech, but seeks to equip young people to distinguish between true and false and to engage in responsible behaviour,” Prof. Samarajiva added.
Facebook has significantly ramped up Sinhala and Tamil language expertise to curb hate speech and other harmful contents originating from Sri Lanka on the social media platform after mob violence directed at its Muslim minority post the Easter Sunday bombs, which saw hate speech and rumours spreading like wildfire on social media services, especially those operated by Facebook.
This led to the company hosting a community standards briefing session for media organisations in Colombo last July to increase understanding and awareness of Facebook’s Community Standards, and the work they do to keep the community safe.
(DEC