Tag: hate speech

  • 31.5 million hate speech posts removed in last quarter: Facebook

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  In a major crackdown on hate speeches and Covid-related misinformation, Facebook has claimed to have removed millions of posts in the June quarter. It said removal of such content has increased 15 times on Facebook and Instagram since it first began reporting these.

    Facebook Vice-President Integrity Guy Rosen said in a blog post, “We removed 31.5 million pieces of hate speech content from Facebook, compared to 25.2 million in Q1 (March quarter), and 9.8 million from Instagram, up from 6.3 million in Q1…Prevalence of hate speech on Facebook continued to decrease for the third quarter in a row.”

    The world’s largest social network had earlier said it aims to comply with India’s new IT rules. Statistics on the crackdown are part of Facebook’s Community Standards Enforcement Report for the second quarter of 2021. Rosen said in the second quarter, the prevalence of hate speech was 0.05 per cent, or 5 views per 10,000 views. This is down from 0.05-0.06 per cent or 5 to 6 views per 10,000 views in the first quarter of the year.

    It removed over 3,000 accounts, pages, and groups for violating rules against spreading Covid and vaccine-related misinformation. “We displayed warnings on more than 190 million pieces of COVID-related content on Facebook that our third-party fact-checking partners rated as false, altered or missing context,” it said.

  • Twitter withholds 50 tweets related to alleged assault of Muslim man in Ghaziabad

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter has “withheld” 50 tweets related to a communally sensitive video clip of an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on the microblogging platform, according to sources.

    According to information on the Lumen database, Twitter received a legal request from the Indian government on June 17 for actioning 50 tweets.

    These tweets have been withheld and the content could not be independently verified.

    Upon clicking on the blocked URLs listed on Lumen database, a message saying the tweet has been “withheld in India in response to a legal demand” is displayed.

    According to sources, these tweets contained content related to the said video clip.

    When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson said: “As explained in our Country Withheld Policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in response to a valid legal demand or when the content has been found to violate local law(s)”.

    The spokesperson noted that the withholdings are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be illegal.

    The account holder is notified directly – by sending a message to the e-mail address associated with the account(s), if available – so that the user is aware that Twitter has received a legal order pertaining to the account.

    “The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the biannual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson added.

    Requests received by Twitter for withholding content are published on Lumen database – an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content.

    The Ghaziabad police have booked Twitter and six people for circulating a video that claimed to have the elderly Muslim man saying he was allegedly thrashed and asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

    Police say this was done to create communal unrest.

    The Ghaziabad police have sent a notice to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, asking him to join a probe in connection with the case.

    Twitter has drawn flak for failure to fully comply with the new IT rules, which mandates among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel – chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users.

    All the three personnel have to be resident in India.

    While the rules came into effect on May 26, Twitter is yet to adhere to the social media guidelines, despite repeated reminders from the government.

    The government, last week, had slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the IT rules, which has led to the US giant losing its intermediary status in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    Twitter and the government have been at loggerheads over multiple instances in the past months, including during the farmers’ protest and later when the microblogging platform tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media”, triggering a sharp rebuke from the Centre.

    Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

    Earlier this month, Twitter had blocked accounts of Punjabi rapper JazzyB, Sydney-based hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and two others following demands by the Indian government.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

  • BJP has completely different standard when it comes to hate speech from its leaders: Omar Abdullah

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: The BJP has a completely different standard when it comes to hate speech from its leaders, National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah alleged on Tuesday.

    Abdullah’s remark came after his party colleague Hilal Lone was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly delivering a “hate speech” at a rally during last year’s district development council elections in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora.

    “The BJP has a completely different standard when it comes to hate speech from its own leaders. They can call for hands to be cut off, people to be murdered and it’s fine. Hilal Lone makes a speech and anti-terror laws are used to book him,” Abdullah tweeted.

    The BJP has a completely different standard when it comes to hate speech from its own leaders. They can call for hands to be cut off, people to be murdered & it’s fine. Hilal Lone makes a speech & anti-terror laws are used to book him. https://t.co/L6ydSTZdI8
    — Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) February 16, 2021

    Referring to Lone’s arrest, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said there would not be enough room in the prisons of the country if the BJP’s ministers, lawmakers and members of its “IT Cell” were brought to book for inciting communal passions against minorities.

    ALSO READ | Omar Abdullah claims he, his family including father Farooq put under house arrest, cops refute

    “GOI (Government of India) continues to shamelessly book Kashmiri mainstream leaders under UAPA for ‘hate speech’.

    The truth is that there won’t be enough room in Indian prisons if their own ministers, lawmakers and noxious IT Cell were brought to book for inciting communal passions against minorities,” she said in a tweet.

    Lone, the son of National Conference’s Member of Parliament Mohammad Akbar Lone, was arrested on Monday from the MLA hostel here where he was being held captive since December last year, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

    He was booked under various sections of the UAPA in an FIR registered at a police station in Hajin in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.

    The official said the case relates to a speech he made during the public rally while campaigning in the DDC polls in Hajin.

    On December 25 last year, he was detained in Bandipora’s Sumbal area and then shifted to the MLA hostel here.