Facebook and Twitter Crack Down on Hate Speech— is this a slow attempt to develop censorship?

By SJ Otto
It might seem a noble idea to try and stop hate speech. But the results of such an effort may end up being censorship. The European Union has claimed “progress in the fight against online hate speech, saying major technology companies have significantly increased their ability to combat the phenomenon,” according to DW.com. Most of this comes from technology that “assessing 89 percent of flagged content within 24 hours, and promptly act to remove it when necessary," said Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice president for the digital single market.
The question I have is how can we be sure that this content is actually hate speech. Without a human to interpret what is being looked at, there are bound to be mistakes. I had my Facebook site closed down for a few days last year when I reported on someone else’s hate speech. I was closed down as if I were the person making the hate speech. There was no way to get a response by Facebook or address my concerns. The action was taken—end of discussion.
We also have to wonder what types of speech will be censored. Will it be strictly hate speech, or will it be ideology as well. If it includes ideology, will it eventually mean attacks on left-wing sites, such as Black Block Anarchism or types of Marxist-Leninism? So far all the censorship has been on the right. But that could easily change.

So from DW.com:

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have streamlined their ability to respond and remove hate speech content on their platforms, according to EU officials. But some see the crackdown as an attempt at online censorship.

    

EU officials on Monday hailed progress in the fight against online hate speech, saying major technology companies have significantly increased their ability to combat the phenomenon.

"Companies are now assessing 89 percent of flagged content within 24 hours, and promptly act to remove it when necessary," said Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice president for the digital single market. "This is more than twice as much when compared to 2016."

Technology companies, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft, are removing 72 percent of flagged content within that period, up from 28 percent in 2016. EU officials said a Code of Conduct to tackle online speech established that year has proved successful, but noted more needed to be done.

"The fight against illegal online hate speech is far from over," said Vera Jourova, European Commission for justice. "We have no signs that such content has decreased on social media platforms. But we do have signs that the Code of Conduct is a tool which can contribute to robust response to the challenge."

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