Google Tackles Trolls With AI

Does this mean if I, with justification, call somebody a troll I'm as guilty as them?

If the trolls are so numerous that you cannot use your social media, then, that is a problem. If their comments or threats, not their actions, frighten you, make you sick, or cause you to alter your daily behavior, you should not be on media or, for that matter, interacting with the public at large. When we allow words or even threats to terrorize us, when we quake and cower, that is sad. Trolls are cowards. They hide behind their anonymity and get off on fear. No censoring AI.
Let them write and post, then laugh at them. Do not take them seriously, let them show what fools they are.
We don't need or want big brother to stand up for us when only words are used, only when actions are taken against us that we cannot defend on our own.

let them wrie

There must be a line somewhere. A threat of rape is a criminal threat. Should go double for the threat of raping a child. This is the perfect example of something so egregiously abhorrent as to be unconscionable. Free speech DOES NOT protect this (this seems to have gotten lost somewhere in this discussion).

The ability to communicate anonymously is not a constitutional right. Google is not the "gummint" but it does have to obey the laws where it operates, otherwise it would be more powerful than governments. I think that outing trolls is the right idea- warn them, then, if they do it again- out them. As Louis Brandeis wrote: "Sunlight is the best of disinfectants."

Threats of harm deserve an active response beyond "outing", preferably from the police.

Insults, on the other hand, can be addressed by riposte. Huffington Post appends this comment to some articles about Donald Trump:
"Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S."

For example:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-rallies-troops-were-gonna-get-rid-of-that-crooked-woman_us_57ebd0bee4b082aad9b80ff2?section=&

Perhaps anti-trolling would work. Perhaps Google could append its opinion to trolls' comments: "Google deems this comment to be fatheaded and stupid. It is the work of a troll."

Come to think of it, does not Huffington Post's comment have characteristics of a troll?

The scariest part of this technology is the "AI". Humans initially program the basic set up. The problem is with the AI learning on its own from any and all sources and making illogical and irrational decisions then taking action. AI may not be able to distinguish between harmless and harmful. The other factor is, will this AI have the capabilities or can be programed to hack and infiltrate systems once it has learned how to do it?
Technology is a marvelous thing and is a great aid to humanity. But there is the dark side of humanity where it is used to wreak havoc and cause harm.

Never should any public interest guidelines be handed over to a non-elected group of bureaucrats which, in the case of the E.U., is nothing more than an enforcing authority to an organized financial crime syndicate. What I find perplexing in this censorship by AI is the instance I found my comments on Google+ published with a strike-through
the sentences unrelated to hate speech. Just a caption to a posted photograph has been given this treatment, for which I can't explain. And the anti-Semite issue is another false argument. The reverse is the problem. Many uppity pro-Jewish groups--call them Jewish supremacists-- love to lobby (read censor)against legitimate criticism and factual history that exposes Zionism. That 45 students at Berkeley can protest content to halt a class midway through semester based on this anti-Semite canard is outrageous. One thing is clear, Google cooperates with the government just as the other social media services do in providing and generating certain "profiles" of users.

Keep up the Good Work and thanks for the things you do for us!

Perhaps one simple way of stopping the vast majority of trolls would be for the social media groups to be more diligent in their acceptance of members. I.E. make it harder for people to set up false accounts by having stricter forms of identity. and only allowing true identities to be used instead of nicknames. It Seems to me that this one simple act would almost eliminate trolling, as one writer said most trolls are cowards who would be to scared to write what they do if they thought they could be identified.

Leslie C. With everything being hacked these days,handing out your identy particulars is a very bad idea.

Dave F It's simple really when you join you give your mobile number for verification, they then send a SMS that you have to confirm, along with a notice that you're linked to that phone No. and if reported for trolling a verification check against that phone number will be instigated.

I believe in free speech and the use of words we have used for life time which the EU stopped, these random words are different to the vile out-poring's of the Trolls and any new technology should be made able to quickly trace the Trolls and expose them, once Trolls know that they can be found and cannot rely on the cloak of secrecy, those nasty twisted individuals will live in the fear of repercussion and so will think twice before posting their hate.

For most of history, there was a natural limit to how widely and quickly ideas (good or bad) could be communicated. Radio & TV began only about 100 years ago, and even then it was the professionals in that field who conveyed information, essentially serving as "moderators" of what people were discussing.

Now we live in a different age. The instantaneous and non-stop "sharing" that comes from everyone being constantly connected to everyone else, inevitably brings out the worst in people, including cruel and excessive shaming. As with mob mentality, calm or accepting attitudes will always be outshouted by the opposite....and an intelligent response will seem less convincing than one that does not require a lot of thought. As the saying goes: "For any problem you face, it won't take long to find a simple answer - and it is usually the wrong answer."

Anonymity does facilitate comments by trolls, but it is not the main problem. The echo chamber of social media itself (or "anti-social" media) amplifies the evolutionary tendency of all humans to be self-centered, judgmental, aggresive, and tribalistic. So an unstable individual will shoot up a school or workplace in order to become famous, with mass media/social media airing their grievances and telling their entire life story. There are life & death consequences to our obsession with sharing everything.

There is simply too much information being communicated and no need for most of it. But people can't tolerate being bored for even a moment - and they no longer have to: Everyone carries with them, in the palm of their hand, a source of limitless diversion and provocation. Sadly, the technological cat is out of the bag and we will forever suffer for it.

Caustic comments seldom persuade, seldom illuminate. Sarah Jeong's caustic comment about Sanders simply angered (presumed) Sanders fans, and persuaded none. Score: A zero sum flame war, burdening the rest of us.

Before we leave the topic of Sanders, he, himself, was regularly flamed by irresponsible comments from the entire spectrum of trolls-- from HRC fans livid that he might challenge the Heiress Apparent to Trump fans, incensed Sanders did not defer to The Donald.

To his credit, Sanders avoided the wasted energy of dueling personalities, and for a change, focused national debate on critical policy issues. Sanders continues as US senator, a progressive thought leader, and a point of inspiration for Americans who welcome reform and a better future.

People really should get back to clean civil behaviors and sweeping their on door steps first.
This years political animosities have really been flying around. At no other time in history have people been able to communicate their thoughts so quickly. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely thus the owners of social media begin to dictate what thoughts we can share. The politics of today should surprise none.

Well, from what I have learned from people I know deep in the industry that is not all that the AI is doing. AI is being used AS trolls to bring about chaos on chat boards.

The results of studying the reactions to certain trigger words are kept track of and and social interactions on line are manipulated with the use of AI. Records are kept of people and those who are considered a threat to a future social standard will be singled out. Unfortunately, that is not the REAL mean people, but usually those with values from morally based upbringing.

So, I don't really feel that is all that they are doing. Keep in mind next time you see a troll that you may not be conversing with a real human at all, but an AI designed to provoke a certain response from you.

Sound too bizarre? About 20 years ago to think of people yacking endlessly or texting obsessively on their phones instead of talking to others, even in social situations was unthinkable and rude.

What is the problem with hate speech ? Banning hate means trying to force people to love someone. Or something. Or some particular government. Or some specific set of ideas. How can you get more oppressive than that ?

Many people hate Hitler and the Nazi ideology. Ah, but speaking against Nazis is not hate speech, you see. However, speaking against Bernie Sanders might be. Feel the difference ?

The exemples you give are not instances of hate speech. They are instances of harrassment, and indeed they are frightening and despicable. Threatening a woman to rape her child is not "speech". It's a threat of rape. Very different.

Hate speech really means speaking against the Left and all its core beliefs. That's what "hate speech" is.

Contrary to what it alleges, "hate speech" is not illegal in the EU. Not yet, that is. The EU would love to make "hate speech" illegal, and it actively works in that direction. If, for instance, the Eurocrats want to import millions of Africans into Europe (which they do), and you hate the idea, then everything you say to that effect would be deemed to be "hate speech".

Google, Facebook and the others have no business delineating "hate" from "love", telling us whom we should love and whom we may hate, or even telling us that we should love everybody indiscriminately and hate no one.

That would be akin to the telephone company dictating what you have the right to say to people over the phone. Wouldn't you hate that ?

Can you say "slippery slope?"

Tell me again who gets to determine what is "hate speech," then tell me what a "reasonable human being" is.

It certainly is a sad state of affairs when one human being can't respectfully disagree with another human being, to the point of threatening personal safety or the ability to earn an income.

Human beings can't objectively determine the hurtful from the snark. Computers are programmed by these very humans... check out the flap over liberal vs conservative speech at Facebook.

I don't believe that the First Amendment protects threatening speech. And by and by, the First Amendment protection doesn't apply to the internet anyway. Each internet forum has some sort of rules for posting that protects the corporate entity from lawsuits. Most of these rules have been upheld in court.

I fail to see the point of trying to curtail trolls. Not only is it not going to work, regular people are going to get caught up in this religious zeal to "combat hate speech".

Who cares if somebody says something mean to you? Ignore or block them. We have these features for a reason, and having some third party entity step in and try to stop it from happening is just going to fail. If people can't handle the banter, then that's on them.

When youtube updated last month they changed their privacy filter. I used it before to filter p**n, etc, from appearing in my feed. Now it seems, they are using it differently. I have had 2 p**n "recommended" appear on my feed. I tried to change settings to private, youtube would not let me comment to the video I was watching. I don't watch any sort of adult context. I had to remove private setting to warn the provider of what was happening. What is youtube really using their new settings for, I wonder?