SOCIAL MEDIA - Facebook in the Spotlight

"What caused the Facebook outage and how it affected global users, businesses" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

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SUMMARY:  Facebook and its group of apps and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram were down most of Monday.  The outages come on the eve of another difficult congressional hearing for the social media giant.  The cause of the outages still has not been explained.  Sheera Frenkel of The New York Times reports on Facebook extensively and joins William Brangham to discuss.

 

 

"Facebook whistleblower asks Congress to regulate tech giant’s influence on users" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

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SUMMARY:  Facebook is under fire Tuesday following testimony by a former employee before a U.S. Senate committee.  Frances Haugen alleged the company too frequently turns a blind eye to potential harm for the sake of profit.  Facebook denied that in statements to the PBS NewsHour and said it is working to make its platforms safer.  William Brangham has our report.

 

WATCH LIVE:  Facebook whistleblower testifies to Senate on children and social media

FACEBOOK - Federal Trade Commission & 46 States File Lawsuits

"Facebook under fire as states seek to rein in the social media giant" PBS NewsHour 12/09/2020

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SUMMARY:  Facebook is one of the most valuable companies in the world, but its dominance is the subject of major new antitrust actions.  A pair of lawsuits filed by the Federal Trade Commission, and by 46 states, allege that Facebook used its power illegally to drive out competition and buy out rivals.  Phil Weiser, Colorado's Democratic attorney general, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the suits.

SOCIAL MEDIA - The Threat of Intelligent Machines

"How to keep AI from turning into the Terminator" by Mark Surman, CNN Opinion 1/15/2019

On GPS: The threat of intelligent machines (video link)

Editor's Note: Mark Surman is the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, a global community devoted to keeping the internet open and free.  The views expressed in this commentary are his own.  View more opinion on CNN.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long occupied an outsized role in our collective imagination, in everything from pulp science fiction novels to James Cameron blockbusters.  When AI is the antagonist, it is corporeal and impossible to overlook, like the Terminator.  Even in the real world, discussions about rogue technology tend to focus on the overt and dramatic, such as Elon Musk's exhortations on Twitter that the dangers of AI rival the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Perhaps humankind is moving toward an oppressive artificial superintelligence.  In the meantime, artificial intelligence is already woven into our everyday lives.  It provides us with things we love and need, from productivity advice to movie recommendations.  Yet, when we don't carefully consider its impact on our democracies, our justice systems and our well-being, we open ourselves up to real risks.

The AI of today is invisible to most of us, yet ubiquitous.  One example we interact with frequently is recommendation engines on the internet -- the code recommending that next video on YouTube or a post on Facebook.  These algorithms pull together vast amounts of our personal data to learn about us and curate our experience online.  In this case, AI is simply your personal data mixed with the data of people with similar interests -- and then pointed back at you.

The result can be serendipitous and delightful.  It can also be dangerous.  Last year, Silicon Valley moguls opened up to New York Magazine about how today's social media is designed to addict users.  Using our data to manipulate us to stay on a site may or may not be pernicious in its own right.

But even if you don't worry about it for yourself, there is growing evidence that these systems tend to radicalize and polarize.  Last year, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher Zeynep Tufekci dubbed YouTube "the Great Radicalizer": view one anti-vaccination video, and YouTube will suggest a second; watch one factually incorrect political video, and YouTube will recommend a sequel.

Further, these algorithms can be gamed by humans to sow even more discord.  Data for Democracy researcher and Mozilla fellow Renee DiResta uncovered how anti-vaccine activists exploit Google's algorithm to spread dangerous disinformation.  How?  By publishing reams of misleading articles peppered with popular keywords and search terms.  She also recently testified before Congress about how Russian operatives manipulated Facebook's AI to influence American voters by posing as American news outlets and American voters.  (Note: Mozilla, a nonprofit, is the creator of the open-source Firefox browser, a competitor of Google's Chrome browser.)

Of course, the problem isn't technology, per se -- AI isn't inherently malicious.  But it does replicate and amplify human bias.  Computer programs are made by humans who bake in certain design goals and draw on certain data sets.  Inside all of this are the normal contradictions of humanity: generosity and greed; inclusion and bias; good and evil.

Think about it: If the goals and incentives of a set of programmers are to increase advertising revenue, it's not surprising that the content recommendation algorithms they create keep people watching videos for as long as possible.  And, since these algorithms learn and adapt to get better at their goals, it's not surprising that apps like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are becoming what Professor Ronald J. Deibert, who has hosted past Mozilla fellows, dubbed "addiction machines" in a recent paper titled, "Three Painful Truths About Social Media."

Further, this technology is developed by a small handful of companies -- names like Facebook that you know and others, like Palantir, that you probably don't -- with little transparency.  Public officials, investigative journalists, and civic-minded citizens can't peer at the code to uncover problems.  Put simply: "The public doesn't have the tools to hold algorithms accountable."

The question we really need to be asking is: how do we make AI responsibly and ethically?  Fortunately, there is a growing cadre of people and companies asking this question.

Researchers like Tufekci and DiResta are vital voices.  Groups like the Center for Humane Technology are examining how the "addiction economy" works.  Organizations like New York University's AI Now Institute are examining the ways AI impacts essential liberties.  Even established players like Microsoft and startups like Element AI are calling for regulation.

Others are stressing the need for more engineers and product designers who consider responsibility and ethics when building AI.  Imagine a social app designer who asks: How do I both grow profits and keep users safe?  People who create drugs and automobiles ask these questions; why not developers?  With this in mind, Mozilla (my company), Omidyar Network, Schmidt Futures, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies are leading the Responsible Computer Science Challenge, a $3.5 million initiative to integrate ethics into undergraduate computer science curricula.

Finally, it is worth noting that a handful of governments are starting to step up, too.  In 2018, the New York City mayor's office announced an AI watchdog panel.  More recently, the governments of Canada and France announced a joint initiative to examine the intersection of AI and ethics.  And, in Finland, the government is training 1% of the population in AI basics, such as when it is deployed and the definitions of terms like "machine learning" and "neural networks."

As artificial intelligence becomes more pervasive, it's critical to foster a better public understanding of its impact on society.  Hulking robots make for good cinema but aren't accurate representations of how AI can and does do harm today.  We need to focus on real solutions, like planning for ethical and responsible technology at the drawing board, not after the fact.

Bottom line: We need to anticipate and eliminate bias in AI before it reaches millions of people.

FACEBOOK - Countdown to Midterms

And while our democratic process burns, Trump rants and raves about a 'witch hunt.'

"Facebook grapples with evolving threat in the countdown to midterm elections" PBS NewsHour 7/31/2018

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SUMMARY:  Facebook said on Tuesday that it has removed 32 fake, coordinated accounts, that appeared to be designed to try and influence voters with misinformation and divisive messages on cultural issues -- and they could be connected to Russia.  John Yang learns more from Yamiche Alcindor.

"Facebook finds ‘sophisticated’ efforts to disrupt U.S. elections" by Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press PBS NewsHour 7/31/2018

Facebook said it has uncovered “sophisticated” efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms.

The company said it removed 32 accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in “coordinated” political behavior and appeared to be fake.

Facebook stopped short of saying the effort was aimed at influencing the U.S. midterm elections in November, although the timing of the suspicious activity would be consistent with such an attempt.

According to a Facebook official, the company held briefings in the House and Senate this week.  The official declined to be named because the briefings were private.  Facebook disclosed its findings after The New York Times reported on them earlier Tuesday.

The company said it doesn’t know who is behind the efforts, but said there may be connections to Russia.  Facebook said it has found some connections between the accounts it removed and the accounts connected to Russia’s Internet Research Agency that it removed before and after the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections.

The earliest page was created in March 2017.  Facebook says more than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of the fake pages.  The most followed Facebook Pages had names such as “Aztlan Warriors,” ”Black Elevation,” ”Mindful Being,” and “Resisters.”

Facebook says the pages ran about 150 ads for $11,000 on Facebook and Instagram, paid for in U.S. and Canadian dollars.  The first ad was created in April 2017; the last was created in June 2018.

The company added that the perpetrators have been “more careful to cover their tracks” than in 2016, in part because of steps Facebook has taken to prevent abuse over the past year.  For example, they used virtual private networks and internet phone services, and paid third parties to run ads on their behalf.

MEDIA - Instagram

"How Instagram pictures the world" PBS NewsHour 5/1/2017

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SUMMARY:  A startup no longer, Instagram boasts 700 million monthly active users and counting.  As it grows, the free, photo-sharing mobile app is grappling with how to innovate and stay relevant, as well as how to foster a safe community.  But with 95 million uploads a day, monitoring is a tall order.  Judy Woodruff reports from California.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  The rapid rise of one of the world's biggest social media networks, Instagram.

It's building up steam, with 700 million people now using it each month, and it just took four months to pick up its latest 100 million new accounts.

But along the way, the company has faced concerns over how it can be used, and even some criticism for the way it essentially copied ideas from its rival, Snapchat.

Judy Woodruff recently got an inside look during her trip to Silicon Valley.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  One of the first things that greets you inside Instagram is, no surprise, a place to take pictures.  The free photo-sharing mobile app was born in 2010 with its first post, a foot in a flip-flop alongside a stray dog.

Turns out it was taken in Mexico by co-founder Kevin Systrom.

KEVIN SYSTROM, CEO and Co-Founder, Instagram:  It's a mixture of teams.  So, we have got design teams, we have got partnership teams, we have got a community team, and then a bunch of engineers.  We don't really have an organization.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Systrom showed us around Instagram's new offices in Menlo Park, California, designed to accommodate an ever-expanding staff.

You moved here six months ago; is that right?

KEVIN SYSTROM:  Yes, six months ago, we moved from the original campus.  And we designed this entire experience inside here to be cleaner, and a little bit more Instagrammy.  So we have got the hip wood walls, and the polished concrete floors.  It's very start-uppy, but it's in an Instagram way.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  A start-up no longer, Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for a cool billion dollars.  Then, the company had 13 employees.  Now it has more than 600 to keep up with a rapidly growing user base, 700 million monthly active users and counting, 80 percent of them outside the United States.

How do you explain the phenomenal, rapid growth of this?

KEVIN SYSTROM:  On Instagram, very early on, you would post an image, and anyone anywhere in the world could see that image, and understand what you were trying to say without speaking your language.

So, we like to say that Instagram was one of the first truly international networks in the world.  And I think that's what's allowed it to scale to the hundreds of millions of people that use it every day today.