How Will Facebook’s New Algorithm Police Hate Speech?

In early December, reports emerged that Facebook is overhauling its algorithms used to detect hate speech. But now the social media conglomerate has explained how its new, advanced AI will differ from that of the past.
According to Facebook regional vice president Dan Neary, hate speech accounts for 0.1 to 0.11 per cent of all posts on Facebook—with the average user experiencing 10 to 11 views of hate speech that violate the platform’s content policies for every 10,000 views of content.
In addition, the detection rate for hate speech identified by Facebook’s AI before it is reported to the company is now at 94.7 per cent—up from 80.5 per cent a year ago and just 24 per cent in 2017.
The technology is, according to Neary, extremely effective at detecting what Facebook defines as hate speech. But recent reports from The Washington Post revealed Facebook has, for more than a year, been in the process to overhaul what it detects, and what it removes, as hate speech.
As The Post reports, this is because its algorithms were “race-blind”, with comments like “White people are stupid” treated the same as anti-Semitic or racist slurs prior to the overhaul.
The algorithms were not making a distinction between groups that were more likely to be targets of hate speech and those that have not been historically marginalised.
So, how will Facebook’s new methods of detection differ from those of the past?
“We know that hate speech targeted towards underrepresented groups can be the most harmful, which is why we have focused our technology on finding the hate speech that users and experts tell us is the most serious,” a Facebook spokesperson tells B&T.
“Over the past year, we’ve also updated our policies to catch more implicit hate speech, such as content depicting Blackface, stereotypes about Jewish people controlling the world, and banned holocaust denial.”
Thanks to significant investments in its technology Facebook now proactively detects 95 per cent of the content it removes.
The spokesperson added that it continues to improve how it enforces its rules as hate speech “evolves over time”.
“We have worked hard to understand the impact of our work on underrepresented groups as we know that hate speech targeted towards them can be the most harmful,” the spokesperson said.
The new overhaul, known as the ‘WoW Project’, is understood to have been running since 2019, as the result of working with external experts, external research and internal research, including frameworks like Susan Benesch’s Dangerous Speech project.
As a result, Facebook has made updates to focus its proactive detection technologies on catching the hate speech users and experts say is the most serious, including dehumanising speech, and expressions of contempt or inferiority.
However, these combined insights have seen Facebook stop using its proactive technology to find a small subset of attacks against White people, Americans, and men.
This is understood to have improved the precision of the hate speech Facebook does go after: the social media conglomerate now goes after more harmful hate speech, because its technology is more accurate at finding and removing this content.
The small subset of attacks that Facebook’s proactive technology is no-longer trained to find—phrases like ‘Men are Dumb’ and ‘Americans are Stupid’—will, however, still be removed if someone reports them.
This is understood to come in a bid to stop the perception of Facebook over enforcing on speech that is deemed less harmful, including people posting ‘Men are Trash’ after a breakup.
Latest News

Ogilvy Australia CEO David Fox To Head Middle East & North Africa Office
Ogilvy has announced David Fox will be promoted to the role of CEO for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, effective March 1, 2021. Based in Dubai the new role encompasses responsibility for nine countries and 10 offices across the region. The move to a new regional position follows six and a half […]

Vic Gov Chooses QMS For Its Holidaymaker Fire Warnings
Holiday goers leaving Melbourne are being reminded to check Fire Danger Ratings (FDRs) to ensure they are fire safe and ready as they head out of the city and into regional Victoria. As part of the annual Victorian Fire Season campaign, the Victorian Government’s (Vic Gov) latest outdoor campaign harnesses the dynamic capability of digital […]

Marketers, Digital Experts, Podcasters & Bloggers Among 2021’s “Jobs On The Rise”
LinkedIn has unveiled its annual Jobs On The Rise report and – despite the usual suspects – it’s good news for those workers who possess digital skills and can work remotely. You can read the report in full here. As you’d expect, the report was headed by the always in-demand occupations such as health care […]

Have We Entered Peak Podcasting? 2021 Predictions
Henrik Isaksson is the regional managing director at Acast AU & NZ. In this opinion piece, he gives his top prediction on what 2021 will bring for the podcasting world. Despite a volatile media environment in 2020, podcasting has continued to grow from strength to strength. We have seen record listen numbers month-on-month and advertising […]

Lenovo Turns Aussie Tech Review Into A Death Metal Song
Lenovo has released a new campaign that applies a surprising creative twist to reviews of its products, combining them to form death metal songs. Yes, you read that correctly. The works come from Omnicom-owned Swedish agency Ehrenstrale, in a bid to target gamers, which Ad Age reports are an important audience for the brand, and […]

Bastion Collective Launches New Interactive Experience agency Bastion Interactive
Bastion Collective launches new arm, Bastion Interactive, which is a specialist interactive experience agency headed up by ex DDB Tribal Managing Director.

Major US Networks ‘Boycott’ Trump Farewell Address
Outgoing and twice impeached President Donald Trump released a pre-recorded farewell as he departed Washington. But many of the US’ major networks didn’t show it. Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter in the wake of his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol on 6 January. His personal account on YouTube has also been suspended […]

Facebook Journalism Program Helps News Publishers Find New Subscribers
New data from Facebook shows that an initiative aimed at supporting local news publishers is showing early signs of success. Australian and New Zealand publishers participating in the Facebook Journalism Project’s Reader Revenue Accelerator in 2019 and through 2020 secured more than 24,000 new paying subscribers and more than 160,000 new loyal readers (whether through […]

Kate Langbroek Returns To Melbourne’s Chapel Street For ‘Support Local’ Campaign
Radio personality and comedian Kate Langbroek has returned from Italy to rediscover Melbourne’s iconic Chapel Street Precinct, which has seen a post-lockdown renaissance of business over summer. Langbroek has stitched the words ‘Support Local’ on her sleeve, making visits to many Chapel Street Precinct businesses with a film crew capturing each of the business owners […]

Sky News Australia Will Be Live From Washington During Biden, Harris Inauguration
Sky News Australia to air all of tomorrow's presidential inauguration. Tune in from 4am to see all the gritted teeth.

Data Pooling: What Is It And Why Does It Work?
Nervous about a half pike with twist into the data pool? Tighten the Speedos with this read judged a "perfect 10".

M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment Appointed By My Muscle Chef
My Muscle Chef is only surpassed by Carlton Zero as the least stolen item in the B&T office fridge.

“I’m Not Dead!”: Kyle Sandilands Sparks Panic After Not Showing Up To Work
Fears this morning Kyle may have dropped dead. Southern Cross Austereo immediately denies any use of KGB nerve agent.

Kogan Pays $310K For Breaching Spam Laws
Here's a stern lesson for any email spammers out there. Let's just hope those Nigerian billionaires are reading today.

Boomtown Unveils Expanded Education Program For 2021
Has your one & only New Year's resolution left you trying to squeeze back into pants? Improve yourself instantly here.

Koala Conquers COVID Hurdle For New Commercial With 12K Video Shots
Paying homage to the Vincent Desiderio painting ‘Sleep’ and Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ music video, Koala Furniture’s new commercial shows a range of people all comfortably sleeping on their Koala Mattresses. Like the ‘Famous’ music video, the commercial for Koala’s new mattress begins with a close up of a single sleeping person and then slowly pulls […]

Free TV Australia Calls For “Speedy Action” On Media Bargaining Code, As Sorrell Voices Concerns
News Media Bargaining Code continues to prove proverbial hot potato as Sir Martin threatens his own gratin dauphinois.

“Not Cool!” TV Reporter Subjected To Vile Abuse During Live Broadcast
B&T warns this article contains the sort of unsavoury language commonly associated with Australian cricket spectators.

The ‘500 Greatest Songs Of All Time’ To Play On Nine Radio In Feb
B&T tipping 'Run To Paradise' or anything Barnsey to do the business in Nine's ‘500 Greatest Songs Of All Time’.

MediaCom Unveils New Logo & Agency Proposition ‘See The Bigger Picture’
This'll be of more interest to MediaCom's clients. For the rest of us, it's more a passing interest/time filler thing.

Tinder, Bumble Banning US Capitol Rioters
Dating apps have banned the US Capitol rioters. However, that's not to say there's not plenty of loons & psychos left.

PEDESTRIAN.TV Moves Self-Care Festival Online For 2021
Pedestrian Group has announced it will be taking the third iteration of its national self-care festival Selfish online in 2021. Selfish Sessions, running virtually from February 24 – 26, will reflect on what self-worth means to young Aussies, focusing on long-term strategies to improve their intellectual, emotional and creative wellbeing off the back of a […]

The Future Of Corporate Events? ARIA Awards Founder Peter Rix Chats Post-Pandemic, Burning Man + More
2020 certainly did bring a reprieve from the myriad of events. Although, B&T does pine for the networking drinks.

Depositphotos Reveals Visual Trends 2021
It's the first of the visual trends reports for 2021. And it's not good news for wearers of the polka dot or salmon.

Val Morgan Unveils POPSUGAR Editorial Team
The POPSUGAR team revealed, but not before escaping the wilds of the Amazon Basin judging by accompanying press images.

OMA: Outdoor Revenues Plummeted Almost 40% In 2020
Outdoor industry praying the locust plagues & pterodactyls stay away in 2021, as COVID shaves 40% off the bottom line.

DDB Sydney Names Matt Chandler As ECD
DDB's Matt Chandler makes immediate shift from Carlton to those wanky Japanese beers following new year promotion.

Personalised Shopping In 2021 – What’s Changed?
2021 is set to be the year of personalised shopping. To counter that, the Chinese are calling it the year of the ox.

A-League Clubs Partner With Epic Games In New Fortnite Campaign
This week, three A-League clubs will partner with Epic Games to celebrate global football in Fortnite, alongside more than 20 other top clubs from around the world. Starting on Sunday, players can choose from 10 different variants of new “Kickoff Set” outfits to represent their favorite club in-game. Each outfit can be swapped to any […]