Contrite Facebook executives seek to ward off more European rules
Contrite Facebook executives seek to ward off more
European rules
By Eric Auchard and Douglas Busvine January 21, 2018
MUNICH (Reuters) - Facebook executives are fanning out
across Europe this week to address the social media giant’s slow response to
abuses on its platform, seeking to avoid further legislation along the lines of
a new hate speech law in Germany it says goes too far.
Facebook's communications and public policy chief used an
annual meeting in Munich of some of Europe and Silicon Valley's tech elite to
apologize for failing to do more, earlier, to fight hate speech and foreign
influence campaigns on Facebook.
"We have to demonstrate we can bring people together
and build stronger communities," the executive, Elliot Schrage, said of
the world's biggest information-sharing platform, which has more than 2 billion
monthly users.
"We have over-invested in building new experiences
and under-invested in preventing abuses," he said in a keynote speech at
the DLD Munich conference on Sunday.
In the United States, lawmakers have criticized Facebook
for failing to stop Russian operatives using its platform to meddle in the 2016
presidential elections, while Britain's parliament is looking again at the role
such manipulation may have played in Britain's Brexit vote to leave the
European Union.
A German law that took effect at the start of the year
requires social networks such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to remove online
hate speech or face heavy fines.
"It sets forth the right idea for the relation
between government and the private sector but it also goes farther than ... we
think it should go," Schrage said of the law.
"At the same time the law places the responsibility
on us to be judge and jury and enforcer determining what is legally compliant
and not. I think that is a bad idea.
"The challenge is how to define where the violation
has been or not," he said.
By contrast, Schrage praised the approach of the European
Union in demanding that internet companies adhere to a code of conduct and
respond quickly to requests to take down illegal content rather than being
required to make those decisions themselves.
"That’s an example of how we can work with
governments to be more responsive to their concerns," Schrage said of the
EU.
The EU has put internet companies on notice that it will
legislate if they don't do a better job self-policing their services for
extremist propaganda, hate speech and other abuses.
NO WILD WEST
Far from being a "Wild West of content",
Schrage argued, Facebook's policies on policing content are far more in line
with Europe's strict boundaries governing hate speech than the anything-goes
reputation it has coming from Silicon Valley.
"We are often criticised for being an American
company. But our policies with respect to speech and expression are much closer
to how the standards have evolved in Europe than they are in the United
States," Schrage said.
"We do not permit hate speech, we do not permit
incitement. There is a tremendous amount of content we remove regularly. When
we see content related to terrorism, to hate speech, to incitement, we reach
out to law enforcement," he said.
But several tech leaders in the audience said Facebook
had long ignored what are effectively editorial responsibilities for policing
abusive content on its platform.
Schrage said Facebook now employed thousands of people to
monitor content and to work more closely with law enforcement, while automated
algorithms detect and delete 99 percent of Islamic State and al Qaeda content
before any Facebook users ever see it.
Paul-Bernhard Kallen, chief executive of Hubert Burda
Media, one of Germany’s largest publishers, said Facebook has avoided
responsibility for moderating content on its platform.
"From my perspective, Facebook is a media company.
One way or the other, Facebook should accept it," Kallen said of taking
more control over content or facing regulatory demands to do so.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is
meeting policymakers in Paris and Brussels, while Schrage is touring Germany.
Later this week they will converge on Davos, the annual policy gathering of
world politicians, business chiefs, bankers and celebrities taking place in the
Swiss Alps.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who
has declared earlier this year that his 2018 goal is to "fix"
Facebook, is staying home
(Reporting by Eric Auchard and Douglas Busvine in Munich;
Editing by Adrian Croft)
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