Facebook Inc. said on Thursday it was in talks with UK law enforcement officials to help support investigations into online racial abuse against English soccer players following their recent loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
Black players in the England team were subjected to a storm of online racist abuse after their defeat in the final of the soccer tournament, drawing wide condemnation from the squad’s captain, manager, royalty, religious leaders and politicians.
The comments also prompted a police investigation, although critics accused some ministers of hypocrisy for refusing to support a high profile anti-racist stance the players took during the tournament.
Facebook said it was in discussions with Britain’s National Police Chiefs Council, the UK Home Office Football Policing Unit and local police forces to understand how it can support active investigations, while ensuring that valid data requests are submitted.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged on Wednesday to toughen measures against online hate, banning fans from games if they are found guilty of such offenses and fining social media for failing to remove it.
Social media companies including Facebook and Twitter Inc. have come under fire for amplifying hate speech and misinformation globally across their platforms.
Facebook also removed more than 25 million hate speech posts from its platform and more than 6 million posts on Instagram that contained words or emojis promoting racism, during the first three months of the year, it said in a blog post.
Facebook in talks with UK law officials to tackle online racist abuse
https://arab.news/4q7su
Facebook in talks with UK law officials to tackle online racist abuse
- Facebook is conducting talks with the United kingdom law enforcement officials to look into online racial abuse against English football players
- Black players in the England team were subjected to a storm of online racist abuse after their defeat in the Euro final against Italy
Malaysia, Indonesia become first to block Musk’s Grok over AI deepfakes
- Authorities in both countries acted over the weekend, citing concerns about non-consensual and sexual deepfakes
- Regulators say existing controls cannot prevent fake pornographic content, especially involving women and minors
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images.
The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.
Regulators in the two Southeast Asian nations said existing controls were not preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content, particularly involving women and minors. Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.
“The government sees non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,” Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement Saturday.
The ministry said the measure was intended to protect women, children and the broader community from fake pornographic content generated using AI.
Initial findings showed that Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement. He said such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent, causing psychological, social and reputational harm.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered a temporary restriction on Grok on Sunday after what it said was “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit and non-consensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.
The regulator said notices issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards drew responses that relied mainly on user reporting mechanisms.
“The restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,” it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.
Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. Users can ask it questions on the social media platform and tag posts they’ve directly created or replies to posts from other users. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.
The Southeast Asian restrictions come amid mounting scrutiny of Grok elsewhere, including in the European Union, Britain, India and France. Grok last week limited image generation and editing to paying users following a global backlash over sexualized deepfakes of people, but critics say it did not fully address the problem.
