Have seen drop in hate speech content, says FB
NEW DELHI: The prevalence of hate speech on Facebook has dropped compared to the last quarter, the social media company said in its fourth quarter enforcement report released on Thursday.
“Last quarter, we shared the prevalence of hate speech on Facebook for the first time to show the percentage of times people see this type of content on our platform. This quarter, hate speech prevalence dropped from 0.10-0.11% to 0.07-0.08%,” the company said.
This implies that for every 10,000 posts there were seven to eight views of hate speech. Further, the prevalence of violent and graphic content also dropped from “0.07% to 0.05% and adult nudity content dropped from 0.05-0.06% to 0.03-0.04%”. The social media company added that it also took down 6.4 million pieces of organised hate content, up from 4 million in the last quarter and 26.9 million pieces of hate speech content, up from 22.1 million. According to the company’s policy prevalence estimates the percentage of times people see violating content on the platform. “It is calculated by selecting a sample of content seen on Facebook and labelling how much of it violates our hate speech policies”.
“Because hate speech depends on language and cultural context, we send these representative samples to reviewers across different languages and regions. Based on this methodology, we estimated the prevalence of hate speech from July 2020 to September 2020 was 0.10% to 0.11%...,” the company said.
Facebook has been charged with allowing hate speech to flow freely on its platform. The company said that the improvements were mainly due to changes made to reduce problematic content.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The additional sessions court in Kottayam (central Kerala) on Friday sentenced 51-year-old Suresh alias S M Shahjahan to 24 years of Rigorous Imprisonment for raping a minor girl from Vithura, keeping her in illegal custody and trafficking her into sexual slavery, in a case that first came to light over two decades ago.
Suresh, the main accused, was found guilty under sections 344 (wrongful confinement) and 372 (for selling a girl for flesh trade), among others of the Indian Penal Code as well as under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, in one out of the 24 cases on Thursday.
Justice Johnson John said on
Friday that the accused did not deserve sympathy and the trial in the remaining cases will be expedited.
The crime came to light in 1996 after the victim, then 17, was arrested from a hotel in Ernakulam for involvement in sex trade. While in prison, she narrated her story to the police, whose investigation eventually led to over 40 people, including comedian Jagathi Sreekumar, being booked for sexual exploiting her. Sreekumar was eventually acquitted for want of evidence in 2007.
“God is great and the truth has won. I know many people were praying for me and their prayers have been answered. I have nothing against anyone,” the actor had said.
Suresh emerged as a trafficking kingpin who paid a certain Ajitha Begum, who was a relative of the victim, to bring her to him under a false pretext. The minor, who hailed from a low income family, was kept in illegal custody for 10 days and raped by Suresh.
She was also raped by other close to 40 men whom Suresh introduced her to over the period of a year.
Soon after being booked, Suresh went into hiding for nearly 20 years, only to re-emerge in 2014, when he surrendered before the Ernakulam Judicial First Class Magistrate court and received bail. By this time, the court had acquitted 14 persons and Ajitha Begum had died in a road accident. Soon after receiving bail, Suresh absconded during the trial proceedings. He was later caught in Hyderabad.
During the trial the victim, now 43, narrated her ordeal and informed the court that Suresh had physically assaulted her, locked her up and starved for days on end to ensure her sexual slavery.
In 2013, she had complained of how she was unable to identify her tormentors because of the lapse of so many years.
THE CRIME CAME TO LIGHT IN 1996 AFTER THE VICTIM, THEN 17, WAS ARRESTED FROM A HOTEL IN ERNAKULAM FOR INVOLVEMENT IN SEX TRADE