The situation in the Netherlands
Can we expect similar rules in the Netherlands? ICT lawyer Arnold Engelfriet tells NOS that it will not be that bad: “Europe has had rules since 2000 that state that you are not liable for what people do on your site. You only have to intervene if you have been informed and are liable if you fail to investigate the response and, if necessary, remove it.”
But in the case of insulting reactions, a media company can still be held accountable for its moderation duty. Certainly in the whatsapp number list case of posts about subjects that you can expect to receive strong reactions.
“It is a constant playing field between two fundamental rights: the right to freedom of expression and the right not to have your good name affected,” Neal Walenkamp, ICT & Privacy Law attorney, told NOS.
Automation will not work
So could you let AI take over the moderation work? Some 90% of content that violates Facebook’s rules is already removed by AI systems. But the systems falter when it comes to hate speech, which is constantly changing and culturally determined.
AI systems stumble when it comes to hate speech, which is constantly changing and culturally determined.
But Mark Zuckerberg keeps dreaming of a technological solution. I read this in the new book The Dirty Truth (affiliate) by Sheera Frenkel & Cecilia Kang about Facebook (p. 198):
“Zuckerberg looked at speech the way he looked at code, mathematics, and language. Fact patterns were reliable and efficient. He wanted to create clear rules. One day, artificial intelligence systems in all countries and languages had to be able to monitor and enforce them. You couldn’t leave decision-making caseno email list to humans and their fallible judgments: humans make mistakes.”
Too bad, Mark, if only it were that simple!
Would you rather be on your own site than on social media?
I also had to think of NUjij while reading about the Australian lawsuit. Nu.nl decided to revive are social media worth a new data center? the community NUjij in 2018. They stopped in 2016, with the idea that the conversations then took place more on social media. But now NUjij is back :