fb has launched a 3rd counterspeech initiative in Europe, partnering with the not-for-revenue Institute for Strategic dialogue for the launch of the online Civil braveness Initiative (OCCI), which is aimed toward tackling on-line extremism and hate speech.
COO Sheryl Sandberg launched the initiative in London this morning along with Sasha Havlicek, CEO of the Institute for Strategic talk, and with the uk founding partners for the initiative who are:
- Brendan Cox, Jo Cox foundation — a company named after a UK MP who used to be murdered through a rightwing extremist last yr
- Mark Gardner, neighborhood safety trust — a company that works to fight antisemitism
- Fiyaz Mughal, inform MAMA — a toughen organization for victims of anti-Muslim hate
- Shaukat Warraich, Imams on-line — an online data portal that objectives to exhibit positive Islamic content material
The OCCI will commit monetary and advertising and marketing enhance to UK NGOs working to counter on-line extremism, including the 4 listed above.
facebook mentioned the intention is to convey collectively specialists to boost highest observe and tools for people to interact in counter speech.
The move follows similar initiatives launched by way of the company in Germany in January 2016 and in France in March 2017. at the initial launch in Germany fb pledged more than €1 million in funding for NGOs beneath the OCCI application.
It’s now not clear if fb has considering accelerated its funding dedication for this system — we’ve requested and will update this post with any response.
in the UK the OCCI will provide:
- training for NGOs to help them to observe and respond to extremist content, and a devoted give a boost to desk so they are able to keep in touch instantly with facebook
- advertising improve for NGOs to undertake counterspeech campaigns through fb’s ingenious retailer and facebook promotion credits
- absolute best practice sharing with NGOs, executive and other on-line services and products
- financial beef up for educational research on online and offline patterns of extremism — and what makes an effective response
overall, the initiative targets to permit a group of local organizations and activists to “share campaigns, experiences, advice and challenges” — using fb’s own groups feature as their networking media.
to date, facebook says OCCI across Europe has engaged in direct training at OCCI Counterspeech Labs and workshops with more than a hundred anti-hate and anti-extremism corporations, accomplishing some three.5 million individuals on-line by the use of — you guessed it — its facebook page.
the corporate has previously talked about how counterspeech training is part of its solution to sort out on-line extremism, noting this in its first laborious Questions submit — which inquisitive about what it’s doing to counter terrorism.
laborious Questions is a series of policy discussions the company announced and initiated last week, soliciting remarks from users on quite a few questions and concerns — from countering the unfold of extremist content to taking into consideration whether or not social media is in most cases good for democracy?
And given facebook’s dazzling dimension — with the platform now having amassed nearly two billion users globally — the corporate has clearly reached a tipping level in terms of realizing it should at very least be considered to be acknowledging it has a responsibility to believe the wider influences of its platform.
the days of Zuckerberg just being able to shrug his shoulders at considerations with the aid of claiming fb is only a technology platform are neatly and truly behind it.
but it is still to be seen what practical measures and modifications to how facebook does industry will waft from this sequence of grown up public discussions. And cynical voices would possibly say fb is in quest of to turn criticism of its platform into increased engagement on its platform.
the company has without a doubt been facing increased attacks in up to date times, together with from politicians in search of to scapegoat tech platforms for not doing sufficient to counter extremism.
And — more generally — for no longer taking their social tasks seriously enough.
A UK parliamentary committee recently slammed tech giants together with fb for taking a laissez faire angle to content moderation, for example — and prompt the government must look at imposing fines for screw ups on this front. one thing it has said it is taking into consideration.
meanwhile, in Germany, a legislative notion that includes fines of as much as €50M for social media companies failing to at once take away illegal hate speech after a criticism has received executive backing.
possibly we due to this fact should no longer be shocked that fb revealed a brand new mission remark the day gone by — pronouncing it now needs to: “provide folks the facility to construct neighborhood and convey the arena nearer collectively.”
It’s definitely a slogan that higher aligns with present political priorities in an international that’s sounding increasingly more divided and divisive.
And person who fb will undoubtedly be hoping no longer only takes the heat far from its platform, however — by way of the likes of this multiplied counterspeech initiative — works to rechannel the terrible energy being directed at its platform and switch it into raise engagement on its platform.
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