Facebook ‘regrets’ Indonesia earthquake balloons gaffe that saw festive animations added to quake messages
BAD BOT Facebook ‘regrets’ Indonesia earthquake balloons
gaffe that saw festive animations added to quake messages
Facebook is pinning the insensitive blunder on its
hopeless algorithm
By Saqib Shah 8th August 2018, 1:37 pm Updated: 8th
August 2018, 3:37 pm
FACEBOOK says it "regrets" an algorithm blunder
that caused balloons and confetti to appear in posts about the deadly
earthquake in Indonesia.
Following the killer quake on the island of Lombok on
Sunday – which has so far claimed at least 142 lives and injured more than 200
– users took to the social network to share their messages of condolence and
support.
Indonesian computer science PhD student Herman Saksono
tweeted about the Facebook gaffe
But they were shocked to find certain comments were
causing Facebook's celebratory animations to flood their screens, including
balloons and confetti.
It seems the blunder was impacting posts that contained
the word "selamat" – which can mean safe or unhurt, but can also mean
congratulations depending on the context.
The word was misinterpreted by Facebook's algorithms to
mean the latter, causing it to initiate the festive animations whenever it was
shared.
“This feature (a text animation triggered by typing
‘congrats’) is widely available on Facebook globally, however we regret that it
appeared in this unfortunate context and have since turned off the feature
locally,” Lisa Stratton, a Facebook spokesperson, told Motherboard in an email.
“Our hearts go out to the people affected by the earthquake.”
Herman Saksono, an Indonesian computer science PhD
student, spotted the blunder over the weekend.
More than 10,000 people were evacuated in the aftermath
of the quake, including 4,600 foreign and domestic tourists from the three Gili
islands off Lombok.
The 7.0 magnitude quake struck at 7.45pm local time on
Sunday, August 5.
Rescuers found victims under flattened buildings, with
one woman pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed mosque, which fell as
people were praying.
Oxfam said it was providing clean drinking water and
tarpaulin shelters to 5,000 survivors, but more than 20,000 estimated have been
displaced.
A tsunami warning was issued in the aftermath covering
the surrounding regions, but this has now been lifted.
It comes just a week after Lombok was rocked by an
earlier earthquake that killed 17 people.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the
death toll was expected to rise after reports of thousands of buildings
collapsing, especially in the north, the quake’s epicentre.
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