Facebook asks for suggestions to tackle 'Hard Questions' on terrorism, content, censorship

Key highlights:

• Facebook asks hard questions in a post it launched today
• One of the first problem it looks to tackle is from keeping terrorists from spreading propaganda
• It also looks to tackle fake news and censorship

In its ongoing fight against stopping terrorist groups from using its platform to tackling the problem of fake news, Facebook in a post today showed it is serious in its efforts to answer hard questions. Through a post on its blog it said that it wanted to broaden the conversation on complex subjects impacting social media and opened it suggestions from the public.

“As more and more of our lives extend online, and digital technologies transform how we live, we all face challenging new questions — everything from how best to safeguard personal privacy online to the meaning of free expression to the future of journalism worldwide,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President for Public Policy and Communications of Facebook.

In a new effort to talk more openly about some complex subjects and asked seven hard questions to the public asking for suggestions on how to tackle them.

One of the first problem it looks to tackle is from keeping terrorists from spreading propaganda online and said that it will release a separate post later today on how they will be doing that.

The other questions it asked people for suggestions include:

• After a person dies, what should happen to their online identity?
• How aggressively should social media companies monitor and remove controversial posts and images from their platforms? Who gets to decide what’s controversial, especially in a global community with a multitude of cultural norms?
• Who gets to define what’s false news — and what’s simply controversial political speech?
• Is social media good for democracy?
• How can we use data for everyone’s benefit, without undermining people’s trust?
• How should young internet users be introduced to new ways to express themselves in a safe environment?

Facebook has been suffering from numerous issues such as terrorists using the platform to spread their propaganda, to the growing problem of fake news sites pushing content through their platform. Many even claim that fake news was one of the reason Donald Trump won the US Elections last year.

Schrage further said, “As we proceed, we certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with all the choices we make. We don’t always agree internally. We’re also learning over time, and sometimes we get it wrong."

"But even when you’re skeptical of our choices, we hope these posts give a better sense of how we approach them — and how seriously we take them. And we believe that by becoming more open and accountable, we should be able to make fewer mistakes, and correct them faster.”