"Clearly Unacceptable Error": Facebook After Labeling Black Men "Primates"
Facial recognition software has been blasted by civil rights advocates who point out problems with accuracy, particularly it comes to people who are not white. Facebook on Friday said it disabled its topic recommendation feature after it mistook Black men for "primates" in video at the social network.
A Facebook spokesperson called it a "clearly unacceptable error" and said the recommendation software involve was taken offline.
"We apologize to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations," Facebook said in response to an AFP inquiry.
"We disabled the entire topic recommendation feature as soon as we realized this was happening so we could investigate the cause and prevent this from happening again."
Facial recognition software has been blasted by civil rights advocates who point out problems with accuracy, particularly it comes to people who are not white.
Facebook users in recent days who watched a British tabloid video featuring Black men were show an auto-generated prompt asking if they would like to "keep seeing videos about Primates," according to the New York Times.
The June 2020 video in question, posted by the Daily Mail, is titled "White man calls cops on black men at marina."
While humans are among the many species in the primate family, the video had nothing to do with monkeys, chimpanzees or gorillas.
A screen capture of the recommendation was shared on Twitter by former Facebook content design manager Darci Groves.
"This 'keep seeing' prompt is unacceptable," Groves tweeted, aiming the message at former colleagues at Facebook.
"This is egregious."
"We apologize to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations," Facebook said in response to an AFP inquiry.
"We disabled the entire topic recommendation feature as soon as we realized this was happening so we could investigate the cause and prevent this from happening again."
Facial recognition software has been blasted by civil rights advocates who point out problems with accuracy, particularly it comes to people who are not white.
Facebook users in recent days who watched a British tabloid video featuring Black men were show an auto-generated prompt asking if they would like to "keep seeing videos about Primates," according to the New York Times.
The June 2020 video in question, posted by the Daily Mail, is titled "White man calls cops on black men at marina."
While humans are among the many species in the primate family, the video had nothing to do with monkeys, chimpanzees or gorillas.
A screen capture of the recommendation was shared on Twitter by former Facebook content design manager Darci Groves.
"This 'keep seeing' prompt is unacceptable," Groves tweeted, aiming the message at former colleagues at Facebook.
"This is egregious."
Comments
George Floyd 5 year ago
As soon as A.I. Will be used by law enforcement and the legal system, you will see even more -much more- innocent black people behind bars.
To allow racism it is not enough that there are those who want to exploit human beings, but there must be those who are willing to surrender.
The fact is that to this day there are seemingly highly educated blacks who allow the white man to exercise the supremacy he actually commits against them.
The white man managed to tame the black public to obey a discriminatory social status, to accept acts of white supremacy against the black people, and to humbly accept the premise of the white man's behavior, which is pretend to be smarter, stronger and privileged.
A punch in the face as soon as any white person, from any class and in any position and authority, expresses any act of superiority would have burned the racism far more effectively than all the polite words of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.
Because the white person is aware that he is inferior, but a punch to his face will convince him that the black person is also aware of the inferiority of the white person.
This is not, God forbid, a call for violence, but a reminder of the fundamental right to self-defense.
George Floyd could be alive, and Derek Chuvin could be already in hell if the black people that was on site used their constitutional rights instead of taking a selfie.
The 2nd Amendment that somehow the black community do not exercise says:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
"So now you see the light, eh
Stand up for your rights"
(Bob Marley)