Facebook Enhances Women's Protection against Online Harassment

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Facebook is improving its policies to protect women on social media. The social media giant is using its artificial intelligence technology, machine learning and policies to fight abuse and harassment of women online.

"The general themes when it comes to women’s safety tend to be the same around the world," Monika Bickert, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Policy Management said in an official blog, Wednesday, October 30. "But we find that when we look at specific countries or regions, the actual types of behavior are very localized."

Monika said Facebook has developed machine-learning and artificial-intelligence techniques to proactively detect nude or near-nude images and videos shared without permission, without having to wait for anyone report them.

The company uses create digital fingerprints of the images before destroying them and use the same combination of digital fingerprinting and photo-matching technology so they are not shared again.

Since cultural norms around things like sexuality, friendships and women’s roles in each country differ, Facebook talks with global experts understand better about how abuse and harassment manifest in different places. In the US, a woman would feel harassed if her nude photo or a video is spread online, while in some countries, a woman could be shamed or put at risk if someone shared a photo of her with a man who isn’t a family member.

"To account for this wide spectrum of harassment types, our rules need to be thoughtful and similarly comprehensive," the blog said.

ANTARA