My view on cyber bullying on Facebook and how to handle it
This post is based on a recent comment of mine on Facebook.
Cyber bullying is bad. If someone indulges in it and then genuinely repents for his/her bad behaviour and is willing to stay away from it in future, then its different. Such people should be given a second chance.
But if they are habitual cyber bullies and use cyber bullying as a way to dominate others when things don't go their way, then I think it is best to stay away from such habitual cyber bullies.
Very unfortunately, the Internet seems to inflame the ugly cyber bullying side in some people as they know that they will typically not have to suffer consequences for it even if they are doing it in their real name, like they would if they indulged in bullying in their regular workplace.
Facebook is quite poor at punishing such behaviour and expects the persons impacted to handle it themselves by blocking the offenders. I find that rather disappointing of Facebook. But then maybe they don't want to play ethical policeman of cyber bullies and have much more serious things to worry about (like people who try to create damage in real life after talking about it in Facebook).
So the onus falls on us users of Facebook. I think unfriending and blocking habitual cyberbullies is a good solution.
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Associated Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2506300692919826
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In response to a comment on Facebook about Facebook AI bots to handle bullies possibility, I wrote:
I watched a lot of the Congressional hearings where Mark Zuckerberg testified on behalf of Facebook. I don't recall hearing anything about bullying! I mean, there were far bigger issues that were being discussed in that public hearing. ... I don't know enough about AI bots to know how effective they would be in detecting bullying behaviour accurately. But even if that can be done, I think Facebook will hesitate to implement it as if the AI bot identifies powerful people (e.g. elected US representatives) as having written bullying posts, Facebook will be made to pay for that!
Further, perhaps some level of bullying may be acceptable as Free Speech in USA! So there could be a lawsuit against Facebook that they are blocking free speech, if they deploy such an AI bot!
In the Congressional hearings, Zuckerberg was put on the spot by some Congressmen (perhaps some Congresswomen too, but I don't recall that) as being biased against some political views and so blocking those views. I think they were giving a message to him that you better not block such political views from USA citizens on Facebook or else we will haul you up on the charge of restricting/blocking freedom of speech. Zuckerberg was super-polite to them and tried to assure them that Facebook will look into those incidents Congressmen talked about and that Facebook will stay politically neutral.
Physical violence threat was where, IIRC, there was unanimity among Congressmen and Congresswomen and Zuckerberg that that should be called out and blocked. But anything lesser than that perhaps may get viewed as free speech in the USA protected by the First Amendment of the USA Constitution.
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In response to comment that Facebook is already using AI bots to delete (abusive) posts in some scenarios, I wrote (slightly edited):
Got some time to do some digging up. From How Facebook uses artificial intelligence to take down abusive posts, https://www.cnet.com/news/heres-how-facebook-uses-artificial-intelligence-to-take-down-abusive-posts-f8/, dated May 2, 2018, "The bottom line is that automated AI tools help mainly in seven areas: nudity, graphic violence, terrorist content, hate speech, spam, fake accounts and suicide prevention."
...
"Something like hate speech is harder to police solely with AI because there are often different intents behind that speech. It can be sarcastic or self-referential, or it may try to raise awareness about hate speech."
--- end small extracts ---
Ravi: The question is whether bullying of the kind we are talking about will be viewed as hate speech even after their AI technology gets better. I doubt it. ... Some of the comments that get put up on the Internet are horrifyingly vicious but which may not cross the line of threatening violence. I think that's what would be viewed as hate speech.
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Cyber bullying is bad. If someone indulges in it and then genuinely repents for his/her bad behaviour and is willing to stay away from it in future, then its different. Such people should be given a second chance.
But if they are habitual cyber bullies and use cyber bullying as a way to dominate others when things don't go their way, then I think it is best to stay away from such habitual cyber bullies.
Very unfortunately, the Internet seems to inflame the ugly cyber bullying side in some people as they know that they will typically not have to suffer consequences for it even if they are doing it in their real name, like they would if they indulged in bullying in their regular workplace.
Facebook is quite poor at punishing such behaviour and expects the persons impacted to handle it themselves by blocking the offenders. I find that rather disappointing of Facebook. But then maybe they don't want to play ethical policeman of cyber bullies and have much more serious things to worry about (like people who try to create damage in real life after talking about it in Facebook).
So the onus falls on us users of Facebook. I think unfriending and blocking habitual cyberbullies is a good solution.
=====
Associated Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2506300692919826
==============================
In response to a comment on Facebook about Facebook AI bots to handle bullies possibility, I wrote:
I watched a lot of the Congressional hearings where Mark Zuckerberg testified on behalf of Facebook. I don't recall hearing anything about bullying! I mean, there were far bigger issues that were being discussed in that public hearing. ... I don't know enough about AI bots to know how effective they would be in detecting bullying behaviour accurately. But even if that can be done, I think Facebook will hesitate to implement it as if the AI bot identifies powerful people (e.g. elected US representatives) as having written bullying posts, Facebook will be made to pay for that!
Further, perhaps some level of bullying may be acceptable as Free Speech in USA! So there could be a lawsuit against Facebook that they are blocking free speech, if they deploy such an AI bot!
In the Congressional hearings, Zuckerberg was put on the spot by some Congressmen (perhaps some Congresswomen too, but I don't recall that) as being biased against some political views and so blocking those views. I think they were giving a message to him that you better not block such political views from USA citizens on Facebook or else we will haul you up on the charge of restricting/blocking freedom of speech. Zuckerberg was super-polite to them and tried to assure them that Facebook will look into those incidents Congressmen talked about and that Facebook will stay politically neutral.
Physical violence threat was where, IIRC, there was unanimity among Congressmen and Congresswomen and Zuckerberg that that should be called out and blocked. But anything lesser than that perhaps may get viewed as free speech in the USA protected by the First Amendment of the USA Constitution.
-----
In response to comment that Facebook is already using AI bots to delete (abusive) posts in some scenarios, I wrote (slightly edited):
Got some time to do some digging up. From How Facebook uses artificial intelligence to take down abusive posts, https://www.cnet.com/news/heres-how-facebook-uses-artificial-intelligence-to-take-down-abusive-posts-f8/, dated May 2, 2018, "The bottom line is that automated AI tools help mainly in seven areas: nudity, graphic violence, terrorist content, hate speech, spam, fake accounts and suicide prevention."
...
"Something like hate speech is harder to police solely with AI because there are often different intents behind that speech. It can be sarcastic or self-referential, or it may try to raise awareness about hate speech."
--- end small extracts ---
Ravi: The question is whether bullying of the kind we are talking about will be viewed as hate speech even after their AI technology gets better. I doubt it. ... Some of the comments that get put up on the Internet are horrifyingly vicious but which may not cross the line of threatening violence. I think that's what would be viewed as hate speech.
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