Even the New York Times CEO is upset about social media censorship

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If even the hard-left New York Times is upset about social media censorship, you know it’s extremely serious. Up to now it has only been conservatives — the people this censorship is targeting — that have been complaining about it, to no avail. Will the New York Times, of all the organizations, be the one to save the freedom of speech? That seems doubtful, but it is good to see Thompson saying these things. The social media stranglehold on the means of communication is a direct threat to our democracy.

“NY Times CEO: Facebook’s Algorithm Will ‘Damage’ Democracy,” by Eric Lieberman, Daily Caller News Foundation, June 13, 2018:

New York Times CEO Mark Thompson cast serious doubt Tuesday about tech companies closely trusting algorithms to help determine which news stories are fraudulent or misleading.

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“The process of citizens making up their own mind which news source to believe is messy, and can indeed lead to ‘fake news,’ but to rob them of that ability, and to replace the straightforward accountability of editors and publishers for the news they produce with a centralized trust algorithm will not make democracy healthier but damage it further,” Thompson said in a keynote lecture.

He added that if algorithms are to be the primary means for attempting to combat the purported rise of misinformation, then companies like Google and Facebook must be as transparent as possible in their efforts.

“We do not know, beyond inevitably imperfect and incomplete empirical observation, how the algorithms of the major platforms sort and prioritize our content, nor can we reliably predict or influence changes in those algorithms, nor in any sense hold the companies to account for them,” said Thompson. “Full transparency about both algorithmic and human editorial selection by the major digital platforms is an essential preliminary if we are to address any of these issues. It would be best if this were done voluntarily, but even if it requires regulation or legislation, it must be done — and done promptly.”

Thompson’s speech came at an event hosted by New America’s Open Markets Institute and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University called “Breaking the News: Free Speech & Democracy in the Age of Platform Monopoly.” Several other key figures and experts in the industry discussed the rising power of Google and Facebook, and what it means for journalism.

His urging to not place too much trust in artificial intelligence systems for deciphering the validity of news stories — and practicing openness when doing so — plays off of examples of errors that algorithms create.

Big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter are often accused of both over- and under-censoring, as separate portions of the public respectively demand they do more to combat always ambiguous hate speech, false news and terrorist exploitation of the platforms’ features, and others call for an overarching free expression ethos, while still doing their best to stop evildoers.

But with some examples of apparent censorship, it’s not clear if the removal or restriction of content is due to human moderators or the automated algorithms.

Twitter recently blocked a user who posted harsh criticism of Hamas, the militant and political Islamist organization regarded by much of the international community as a terrorist group. The social media company told The Daily Caller News Foundation it was an “error,” but wouldn’t clarify if the mistake was directly human, or indirectly human-induced through the way of the “hateful conduct” detection algorithm.

Other cases, on the other hand, are far more definite.

Google, the most powerful search engine, and potentially company, in the world, displayed fact checks almost exclusively for prominent conservative sites, including The Daily Caller. But most importantly, the attempts to verify certain claims were riddled with errors of their own, as the sidebar feature was proved to be faulty. Google eventually agreed after constant communication with TheDCNF, suspending the feature and blaming it on a flawed algorithm. Officials within the tech giant, however, declined to elaborate further as algorithms are proprietary.

“But the underlying danger — of the agency of editors and public alike being usurped by centralized algorithmic control — is present with every digital platform where we do not fully understand how the processes of editorial selection and prioritization take place,” Thompson said in his speech….

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Suresh
Suresh
5 years ago

After facebook, twitter , even Google joins lslamofascist gang to suppress conservative
free speech http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs

saudi/qatar/OIC own part of twitter, Fox Network, fund CNN, MSNBC , buy out politicians , bureaucrats in education dept to push islam in schools/ colleges. Easiest way to brainwash and takeover country and shutdown free speech !

jack
jack
5 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

What most people
don’t understand is that Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter don’t
have the right you and I and most corporations have to take sides in the
political debate – at least not in the work they do online. They gave
that right away when they accepted immunization from legal liability,
under the Communications Decency Act, from activities conducted on their
platforms. For instance, they can’t be sued or prosecuted for
defamation, libel, or indeed for any criminal activity that takes place
in their online domains. They got those privileges by agreeing to serve
as mere “carriers” of data – in other words, as utilities, like
the old phone company. Therefore they can’t be held responsible for
conversations, postings, or other online materials that involve illegal
or otherwise dubious actors.

However, they also accepted another
responsibility in order to qualify for that special protected status.
They implicitly agreed to be neutral – not to provide favor to one
political viewpoint or another, not to favor left-wing media over
right-wing media, not to inhibit the freedom of speech of those with
whom they might disagree – even disagree strongly.

But Google and
Facebook do those things all day long, every day – in fact, every
micro-second – by means of the algorithms they have established, based
on their careful programming that boosts the Huffington Post and Daily
Beast at the expense of WND and Breitbart.

What this clearly
demonstrates is that the Internet Cartel is already in violation of the
Communications Decency Act. By using its special “utility” status to
promote partisan politics, adopt a consistent left-wing lens in its
presentation of the news, banning content objectionable to the
anti-Christian bigots at the Southern Poverty Law Center and using
algorithms in search and display that punish conservatives, Republicans
and other non-leftists, the cartel members abuse their special status as
a mere “carriers” of data.

Since Congress created this monster, it’s time for Congress to fix it.

Suresh
Suresh
5 years ago
Reply to  jack

Agree

AlgorithmicAnalyst
AlgorithmicAnalyst
5 years ago

Algorithms are powerful 🙂

felix1999
felix1999
5 years ago

Not very practical for how they are being applied.

Sing On
Sing On
5 years ago

Essentially the enemedia has been infiltrated by the alt-left, hence everything published is left leaning. It’s up to parents to educate their children to be independent thinkers.

felix1999
felix1999
5 years ago

Somehow I do not believe that the NYT is concerned about censorship since, Twitter, Facebook and Google all favor them. SOROS just dumped billions into the failing NYT. This looks to me like public posturing for lost credibility.

felix1999
felix1999
5 years ago

Dump the account.

John Forbes
John Forbes
5 years ago

YOU mean to say that some on the LEFT now actually SEE the TRAIN COMING DOWN THE TRACKS TOWARDS US???
How on earth did that happen?
FASCISM POLITICAL ISLAM IS RISING EVERYWHERE PEOPLE & THE DITHERITES & WEST NOODLES AT THE HELMS ARE ALL EITHER AFRAID OR CONSCIOUSLY LOOKING AWAY!!

Alleged-Comment
Alleged-Comment
5 years ago

If the programmer is BIASED, so will his algorithms be. I think the liebs call it “projection”. Remember that?

Defence Man
Defence Man
5 years ago

The editorial from the NewYork Times was interesting but seems to totally miss the mark. The Times can make a determination what to print and what not to print. Facebook on the other hand (if it wishes to control what is seen) must use algorithms due to the massive volume of entries. Having said that, the Times and Facebook are doing exactly the same by drastically limiting anything that it does like such as rightist comments, or anything from the Republican view, or anything that could be constrewed to be anti Islamic (islamophobia) etc
It amazes me that you think others are wrong and might damage the country, but your extreme leftist policies don’t ! Why not take a whole new approach and try running a balanced paper ? You’d probably find your circulation climbing instead of falling.

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
5 years ago

Just don’t use their social media if it becomes too much.

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