We are glad that Facebook has restored the account of journalist Inday Espina-Varona after it was erroneously blocked last Monday morning.
What happened to Inday’s FB account shows how things have gotten out- of -control with Facebook, the social media phenomenon with over 1.79 billion users, almost a fourth of the world’s population.
Monday evening, when I visited Inday’s vibrant FB page, I got this advisory: “Sorry, this content isn’t available right now.
“The link you followed may have expired or the page may only be visible to an audience you’re not in”
Inday said she was informed by Facebook Monday that “Someone asked us to review your profile because it might not be following our Community Standards. We’ll need to review your name of Facebook with you by Sunday Dec. 4, 2016.
“We’ll walk you through the review process in your Support Inbox. That’s where we’ll keep all of the messages with you.”
She was surprised because Sunday evening she wrote FB Philippines executive asking why complaints about online abuse were being dismissed by FB.
One can imagine that there are those who are not pleased with Inday’s posts against the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Inday was also strong in her stand for the Lumads that didn’t please the military.
What’s the policy of FB on complaints? Do they just go by numbers without even evaluating the sense and quality of the complaints?
A number of concerned Facebookers denounced FB’s blocking of Inday’s account. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines issued a statement asserting that Inday, former NUJP chairperson, “has never violated any professional and ethical standards as a journalist and blogger and can attest that she, in fact, is among the most tolerant when it comes to conflicting thought and opinion on her social media accounts, although she does not tolerate outright abuse such as threats, personal insults and hate speech.”
NUJP urged FB “to be more circumspect and engaged in determining whether an account is or is not liable for violating their community standards instead of relying solely on mindless algorithms to separate the chaff from the grain. To allow the silencing of reasonable voices again and again does not reflect well on their company’s avowed aims.”
Yesterday, Inday was back in FB.
Inday said she got an email from Elizabeth Hernandez, Facebook’s head of public policy in the Asia Pacific saying: “Thanks you for your patience, as we investigated this matter. It seems your account was incorrectly enrolled in a fake name checkpoint. Your account has been cleared from this checkpoint, so you should be able to access it now.”
Hernandez’s explanation does not quite re-assure FB users that they would not be the next victim of cyber bullying which was what happened to Inday.
It’s worth mentioning though that Facebook is doing something to advance responsible social media behavior.
Last Saturday, I was one of the judges of the Digital Halo-Halo Hackathon, a project of Facebook with Affinis Labs to promote online literacy and responsibility.
Shahed Amanullah, co-founder and chief technology officer of Affinis Labs, said conscious of the power of Facebook, they want to promote responsibility borrowing a quote from Spiderman, “”With great power comes great responsibility.”
To help achieve that, they invited proposals from individuals and groups offering cash prize of $5,000.
The proposals that made it to the finals were advocacy-based reflecting the social consciousness of the young proponents.
Ahon by Team Ahon is a video platform that will create awareness and empower persons with disabilities by telling their success stories, showcasing and maximizing their skills & talents, and eventually help them have access to job opportunities.
AskPIA (Public Information Assistant) by Team Binignit is a service-oriented chat bot that provides one-on-one conversations allowing its users free access to HIV-related information, services, and programs.
Infolytics by Team Logic is a web platform that rates credibility and reliability of news information found online.
MError by In The Mix is your Facebook personal analytics. It’s a Facebook plug-in that highlights words and phrases you use in social media to alert you to language that could be interpreted as hostile.
Paglaum.com by Team Paglaum is a digital crowdfunding platform that produces content on the diversity of cultural communities, their practices, and experiences, including prospective activities that require support.
Project 97 by Team Project 97 is an online platform that seeks to build a positive image of Mindanao by sharing the stories of the people visiting the region.
Declared winner was MError.
(Related article how the team did it
http://www.theyouthfulgrannyva.com/digital-halo-halo-hackathon-a-unique-unforgettable-experience-for-this-filipino-freelancer/)
Congratulations! We wish you the best in implementing your wonderful idea.
Social media is proving to be a big headache even to the technological elite. New people are getting online and their newfound ability to express themselves, ethically or not, coupled with the anonymity available to them gave them the opportunity to abuse that ability irresponsibly, sometimes bordering on criminal libel. It’s good that FB is doing it’s job in getting inputs from its users in order to correct the incorrigibles.
Google is a big disappointment, though. Look at all the clickbait local news with misleading and/or fake headlines and you can imagine how many gullible audiences will believe those headlines whether in Blogger, YouTube or in their search engine. With the amount of info Google processes everyday, it is in the best position to ferret the truth amidst all the misinformation in the web today. Google’s failure to provide a means of feedback from well-meaning audiences will accelerate their downfall, if not of the whole web itself should they allow this any further.
Kudos to this effort by Affinis Labs. I hope the big guys follow suit.
Yes, Tongue. Social Media has become a wild, wild digital jungle. The bullies, the evil minds are trying to dominate it.Everybody should join the battle to reclaim it to its original as connectivity venue make sure that it is used responsibly and constructively.
The #HindiTama movement was a move in the right direction. Someone has to take the lead to ensure such initiatives are not merely ningas-cogon. The noble ideas of today are forgotten after the next weekend.
Vera Files’ fact-checking is commendable too. I doubt though that people are even aware of it.
Been to Youtube lately? A lot of fake headlines are dominating video feeds for local news. All propagated by Duterte propagandists.
FB meanwhile is the biggest distributor of misinformation the uneducated and the gullible assimilate the fake news hook, line and sinker.
Read this article from NYTimes:
the more we walk on opposite path, mas lalong magiging divided ang ating mga paniniwala. kumbaga, kahit paminsan minsan ay tingnan din natin kung meron bang pagkakatugma ang tinutumbok ng magkasalungat na katwiran at mula doon, MAGKITA tayo sa gitna.
agree to disagree and then agree which is much better for all of us, later.
kung laging paiiralin ang pagalingan, aba’y parang magsasalpukan ang lindol at bagyo!
#3 Tongue: “FB meanwhile is the biggest distributor of misinformation the uneducated and the gullible assimilate the fake news hook, line and sinker.”
FB has realized that malevalent forces are overwhelming the good elements in their space. Hackathon is one of their initiatives to get back the space from those malevolent forces.The battle has become intense.
The problem with FB is that they have subcontracted this function of checking these complaints to BPOs, some of them in Poland and in PH’s Accenture. What if those Pinoy agents also have a political agenda and are part or believers of the false news themselves? Obviously the previous defense of using complex algorithms using keywords did not work when trolls wrote comments in Tagalog. Aside from Inday Varona, we have read Manny Mogato’s FB page has been hacked and defaced. His profile pic was replaced by a logo of Mocha Uson Blog. As was Ed Lingao’s FB page which is expecting an attack from a group called DU30 Cyber Warriors (or DCW) who have openly called on Duterte supporters for their Oplan Cyber Tokhang or digital EJK.
A certain Mr Riyoh is openly declaring a social media “war” and calls upon hackers and IT programmers to perpetrate such attacks. Rappler has the lowdown on this.