Author: PAUL MOZUR / Source: New York Times
SHANGHAI — Civil society groups in Myanmar on Thursday criticized Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, arguing that he mischaracterized his company’s effectiveness at detecting and quashing messages encouraging violence in the country.
Taking aim at comments made by Mr. Zuckerberg in a recent interview, the groups said that Facebook had no consistent methods for dealing with hate speech in Myanmar. The same problems keep recurring, they said, with the company routinely failing to follow up on their comments and suggestions.
In a conversation with Vox’s Ezra Klein this week, Mr. Zuckerberg referred to a pair of chain letters that spread around Myanmar on Facebook Messenger last year. One message warned Buddhist groups about an imminent Muslim attack on Sept. 11. The other, spread among Muslim communities, cautioned of violence from Buddhist nationalists on the same day.
“So that’s the kind of thing where I think it is clear that people were trying to use our tools in order to incite real harm,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Now, in that case, our systems detect that that’s going on. We stop those messages from going through.”
In an open letter, the organizations, which have worked with Facebook to flag dangerous and misleading content, including the chain letters, said the messages had spread for days, caused widespread fear and set off at least three violent incidents.
They also said there was no system at all, only a group of organizations and volunteers doing their best to keep up with a torrent of vitriol.
“In your interview, you refer to your detection ‘systems.’ We believe your system, in this case, was us — and we were far from systematic,” the letter says.
“From where we stand, this case exemplifies the very opposite of effective moderation: It reveals an overreliance on third parties, a lack…
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