Facebook is betting on its users conquering hate speech

The company launched a new initiative to pay people to promote counter speech, or anti-hate messages

Hate speech, and the role of social media in counteracting it, has become a big issue in recent months, ever since the terrorist shooting in San Bernardino. Both Facebook and Twitter have come under heavy fire from both the government, and from users, for not doing enough to fight these problems.

Of course part of the issue is that these networks don't want to be seen as censoring their users, even as they seek to protect them, So Facebook has come up with a nifty way of taking on these problems without getting its hands dirty: counter speech.

Basically, the company is paying people to post messages that go against extremist speech and hate speech, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. 

In one case, for example, Facebook is said to have provided ad credits of up to $1,000 to counter speakers, including German comedian Arbi el Ayachi, who put up a video to go against claims from a right-wing group in Greece who said that that eating halal meat would poison Christians. 

In another case, the company, together with the State Department, launched 45 college classes where students were encouraged to create similar messages. It took the form of a competition, and those who participated were given a budget of $2,000 and $200 in ad credits.

The idea to do this came from a team led by Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management.

What this does is allow Facebook to, essentially, have it both ways. It gets to fight hate speech, while also not taking such a strong stand that it could be accused of censorship. It reflects how Mark Zuckerberg has, in a way, been talking out of both sides of its mouth on this issue.

While at once he is voicing support of Muslims, telling them, "you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you," he has also defaulted to the "it's free speech" argument when confronted with hateful language used on Facebook.

"We're trying to connect everyone in the world and give everyone a voice," Zuckerberg said in a town hall meeting following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January. "This is about freedom of expression.

Fighting terrorism on social media

Social media has come under fire from many sources for not doing enough to take down terrorism.

Hillary Clinton specifically asked them to do more in a speech in December. 

“They are using websites, social media, chat rooms and other platforms to celebrate beheadings, recruit future terrorists and call for attacks. We should work with host companies to shut them down,” Clinton said, calling for dialogue between governments around the word and the tech community to "confront this problem together."

Twitter was sued by the family of a Florida defense contractor, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Jordan in November, who accused the company of having "knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits."

In response, both companies have attempted to take a stronger stand on the issue.

Facebook launched a new anti-hate speech initiative in Europe, while also pledging over 1 million euros (or $1.09 million) to support non-governmental organizations in their efforts to rid its platform of racist and xenophobic posts.

Twitter, meanwhile, has updated its rules on hate speech, but, more importantly, it recently announcedthat it had suspended over 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts, primarily related to ISIS.

It seems pretty unfair to lay so much of what happens around the world at the feet of these social media companies, but they do have some responsibility to promote safety. It's good to see that they are taking it seriously. 

VatorNews has reached out to Facebook for more information about its counter speech measures. We will update this story if we learn more. 

(Image source: twitter.com)