Facebook Inc. turned 13 years old this year, and the social media giant is still coming to grips with the fact that its platform now includes nearly 2 billion people, more than a quarter of the Earth’s population. Saying it does not take this responsibility lightly, the company today announced that it plans to answer some “hard questions” about the issues that come with being a global community.

“We debate these questions fiercely and freely inside Facebook every day — and with experts from around the world whom we consult for guidance,” Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president for public policy and communications, said in a statement. “We want to broaden that conversation. So today, we’re starting a new effort to talk more openly about some complex subjects.”

Schrage said that in coming weeks and months, Facebook plans to answer many of the same questions users, politicians and the media have been asking, such as how to fight fake news and how Facebook should be allowed to use private user data. Facebook also welcomes users to send their own suggestions for questions to be answered to hardquestions@fb.com.

‘Hostile place for terrorists’

Facebook’s first in-depth “hard question” deals with what the social network can to do help fight terrorism and other extremist content. Monika Bickert, director of global policy management, and Brian Fishman, counterterrorism policy manager, published a letter outlining the challenges involved with fighting terrorism and some of the steps Facebook is taking.

One of the main tools in Facebook’s arsenal, according to Bickert and Fishman, is artificial intelligence. “Although our use of AI against terrorism is fairly recent, it’s already changing the ways we keep potential terrorist propaganda and accounts off Facebook,” the said. “We are currently focusing our most cutting edge techniques to combat terrorist content about ISIS, Al Qaeda and their affiliates, and we expect to expand to other terrorist organizations in due course.”

Facebook’s uses AI to spot extremist images as videos, as well as to spot text that praises terrorist acts. The AI also automatically detects and blocks new accounts made by users who have already been banned for extremism.

In addition to AI, Facebook also relies on human experts to review reported content and to advise the company on the best practices for dealing with extremism. Facebook also partners with governments and other organizations to establish programs that support strategic dialogue and to develop better training to deal with new issues.

“We want Facebook to be a hostile place for terrorists,” Bickert and Fishman said. “The challenge for online communities is the same as it is for real world communities – to get better at spotting the early signals before it’s too late.”

Photo: Facebook