Facebook on Thursday said it is revising its systems to prioritize blocking slurs against Black people, gays and other groups historically targeted by hateful vitriol, no longer automatically filtering out barbs aimed broadly at whites, men, or Americans.
The change in Facebook’s algorithm is a shift from the social network’s ethnicity and gender-neutral system that removed anti-white comments and comments such as “Men are dumb” or “Americans are stupid.”
“We know that hate speech targeted towards underrepresented groups can be the most harmful, which is why we have focused our technology on finding the hate speech that users and experts tell us is the most serious,” said Facebook spokeswoman Sally Aldous.
The leading social network said it has also become more precise about the hate speech that its software seeks out.
The changes are an adjustment of the leading social network’s automated systems, meaning that hateful posts about whites, men, or Americans that are reported by users will still be deleted if they violate Facebook policies.
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