Business models of big tech companies such as Google and Meta (banned in Russia as an extremist organization) facilitate the proliferation of harmful content on their platforms, Amnesty International said on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2023) Business models of big tech companies such as Google and Meta (banned in Russia as an extremist organization) facilitate the proliferation of harmful content on their platforms, Amnesty International said on Monday.
"The surveillance-based business models of Big Tech companies such as Google and Meta are the root cause of harmful content proliferation on their platforms," Amnesty International said in its new report.
This business model is based on algorithms that amplify hateful and harmful content, which can result in offline violence, it added.
The report noted that Meta's algorithmic amplification played a role in fueling hate speech which led to violations against the Rohingya in 2017.
"Posts on Meta's platform, Facebook, inciting discrimination against the Rohingya were prevalent and rampant before and during the 2017 atrocities and helped to normalize their dehumanization as an ethnic group in extremely violent and hateful terms, facilitating the rapid spread of Rohingya hatred across the country," the report said.
The virality of these posts created a sense of urgency and hysteria and a sense of perceived threat of the Rohingya, it added.
Civil society experts began delivering their concerns over the situation in 2012, however, the company failed to address them, according to the report.
"The content moderation algorithms and measures that Meta employs, whilst useful in picking up some forms of hateful speech and content, do not prevent the algorithmic amplification of such content. Further, Meta does not invest equitably in content moderation across jurisdictions and languages around the world," the report said.
Amnesty International called on state authorities to ban targeted advertising on the basis of invasive tracking practices and to regulate technology companies to ensure that their content-shaping algorithms are used properly.
On the other side, Google, Meta, and other companies should cease the invasive collection of personal data, stop using tracing-based advertising and begin protecting their customers' privacy, the report said.