The impossibility of enforcing Twitter’s squishy new policy on private media

The impossibility of enforcing Twitter’s squishy new policy on private media

Twitter announced yesterday that it would allow people to remove unwanted photos or video of themselves. But there are lots of ill-defined exceptions, and the policy as a whole will be unwieldy to enforce. Analyzing the new policy changes Twitter already bans posting of people’s private information (“doxing”). Here’s the start of the blog post…

When it comes to moderation, Facebook’s fairness and PR goals are in conflict
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When it comes to moderation, Facebook’s fairness and PR goals are in conflict

Facebook claims to have a consistent set of standards for what appears on its platform. But based on the reporting in a recent Wall Street Journal article, it fails. It attempts and fails to apply fair standards to ordinary people. It attempts and fails to treat prominent people who post offensive material more personally and…

The New York Times says Accenture gets $500m for Facebook moderation. Why is this news?

The New York Times says Accenture gets $500m for Facebook moderation. Why is this news?

Yesterday, the New York Times published a piece called “The Silent Partner Cleaning Up Facebook for $500 Million a Year.” Was it actually news, and should it change anything? What’s the news here? Here’s what’s in the article, most of which is far from shocking. Much of it repeats the revelations in an excellent exposé…

The filth factory: Why social network content moderation is doomed to fail

The filth factory: Why social network content moderation is doomed to fail

A battle is waging between humanity’s evil side and the cleverness of Silicon Valley social network engineers. The evil side is winning. And it will always win. The Verge published some insightful articles on this topic in the last few weeks. Casey Newton published the second in a series of exposés on the outsourced operations…

Is your license plate obscene? At the California DMV, it’s anybody’s guess
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Is your license plate obscene? At the California DMV, it’s anybody’s guess

Thanks to research by Samuel Braslow of Los Angeles Magazine, we now know what kind of California vanity plate requests are rejected for being . . . well, a bit iffy. It’s a great case study in the challenges of content blocking policy; “I know it when I see it” is no way to determine…