LONDON: Meta Platforms’ Instagram failed to remove abusive comments aimed at female politicians who are potential candidates for the 2024 US elections, according to a report by the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate on Wednesday.
The report analyzed over half a million comments on Instagram posts by five Democratic and five Republican women politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
CCDH flagged over 20,000 comments as “toxic,” with 1,000 of these comments containing sexist and racist abuse, as well as death and rape threats. Instagram left up 93 percent of the harmful comments even after breaching the platform’s standards.
In response to the report, Meta said it has tools in place for users to control comments on their posts, including filtering out offensive comments, phrases or emojis.
“We will review the CCDH report and take action on any content that violates our policies,” said Cindy Southworth, head of women’s safety at Meta.
In its analysis of the 2020 US election, the CCDH report found that women of color were more likely to be targets of sexist and racist abuse.
The rise of online abuse against women politicians has drawn criticism from advocacy groups.
It also highlighted how social media algorithms that prioritize emotional content and engagement can inadvertently amplify this abuse, a feature that politicians often leverage to boost their engagement rates.
This underscores the role social media platforms and their algorithms play in the propagation of online abuse, a problem that extends beyond the political sphere and affects millions of users worldwide.
The report urged social media platforms to enforce their safety guidelines more effectively and take decisive action against targeted online abuse.
Meta’s Instagram failed to curtail hate speech against women politicians, report says
https://arab.news/wxxr8
Meta’s Instagram failed to curtail hate speech against women politicians, report says
- Center for Countering Digital Hate said Instagram left up 93 percent of the harmful comments directed at US women politicians
Foreign press group welcomes Israel court deadline on Gaza access
- Supreme Court set deadline for responding to petition filed by the Foreign Press Association to Jan. 4
- Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the Strip
JERUSALEM: The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set January 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the supreme court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
On October 23, the court held a first hearing on the case, and decided to give Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan for granting access.
Since then the court has given several extensions to the Israeli authorities to come up with their plan, but on Saturday it set January 4 as a final deadline.
“If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file,” the court said.
The FPA welcomed the court’s latest directive.
“After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out,” the association said in a statement.
“We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.
“And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the supreme court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” it added.
An AFP journalist sits on the board of the FPA.
