Google’s chairman wants algorithms to censor the internet for hate speech
Google’s chairman wants algorithms to censor the internet
for hate speech
"As with all great advances in technology, expanded
Web access has also brought with it some serious challenges." (Reuters/Kim
Kyung-Hoon)
WRITTEN BY Hanna Kozlowska
3 hours ago
In an op-ed for The New York Times (paywall), Eric
Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, inserted himself directly into the
middle of a heated debate about the line between fighting terrorism’s online
reach and internet censorship.
“It’s our responsibility to demonstrate that stability
and free expression go hand in hand,” he writes. “We should build tools to help
de-escalate tensions on social media—sort of like spell-checkers, but for hate
and harassment.”
His words came just after Hillary Clinton, the
frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, called on Silicon
Valley to “disrupt ISIL” last weekend in Washington DC. Clinton said it is
crucial to “deprive jihadists of virtual territory” by shutting off their means
of communication.
With the rapid rise of ISIL and its sophisticated online
recruitment and propaganda efforts, tech companies have been struggling with
finding the balance between preventing terrorists from disseminating their
message and being perceived as government tools for controlling the internet.
Schmidt underlined that tech platforms should target terrorists’ social media
accounts and remove video content—something that Google, Facebook, and Twitter
already strive to do.
Schmidt did not provide details about his proposed
“spell-checkers” for hate, but his suggestion may prove difficult to realize.
The debate about free speech versus hate speech is
already a very controversial one, both in the United States where free speech
is protected by the constitution, and elsewhere. People can barely agree on the
definition of hate speech, so building algorithms to balance that fine line
would be a tall order.
There are some other, less complicated ideas out there
for fighting terrorists online. Donald Trump offered at a rally in South
Carolina that maybe we should just shut down the internet. Trump said:
We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet. We
have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand
what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas,
closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of
speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people.
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