Tech

Facebook blames ‘bug’ for strange hate speech prompt

The glitch has been fixed.

Photo of Phillip Tracy

Phillip Tracy

facebook hate speech bug mark zuckerberg

Earlier today, an error triggered Facebook to ask users whether every post on their News Feed contained hate speech.

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People started noticing the mysterious glitch this afternoon and posted about it on social media. More irate users thought it was being used as a means to censor certain content.

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https://twitter.com/ACTBrigitte/status/991338003820924928

However, Facebook determined a bug caused the internal feature to launch publicly. While it may seem the social network is protecting itself after receiving backlash, the nature of the prompt suggests it was never intended for release.

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After a user selected “Yes” to “Does this post contain hate speech?” they were shown three buttons labeled “Test P 1,” “Test P 2,” and “Test P 3.” It’s not clear how many users were affected, but for those who were, the internal feature showed up in every timeline post, including advertisements.

A Facebook spokesperson told Gizmodo the company was conducting an “internal test” to “understand different types of speech, including speech we thought would not be hate.”

Facebook’s vice president of product management, Guy Rosen, said the problem was solved within 20 minutes. He tweeted one of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s posts as an example.  

https://twitter.com/guyro/status/991348768757829632

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For years, Facebook has been trying to improve the ways it polices its site for hate speech. It most recently published the full guidelines its moderators use to determine what content is and isn’t allowed.

 
The Daily Dot