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Apple was about to remove Facebook from the App Store: human traffickers used the social network to sell victims

2021-09-18T18:43:39.813Z


Another internal company document demonstrates a 'weak response' to the problem. 09/18/2021 11:58 AM Clarín.com Technology Updated 09/18/2021 12:01 PM Apple threatened to kick Facebook out of its App Store after a 2019 BBC report detailed how human traffickers used Facebook to sell victims , The Wall Street Journal revealed. The outlet saw company documents showing that a Facebook investigation team was tracking a human trafficking market in the Middle East whose organizers


09/18/2021 11:58 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • Technology

Updated 09/18/2021 12:01 PM

Apple threatened to kick Facebook out of its App Store after a 2019 BBC report detailed

how human traffickers used Facebook to sell victims

, The Wall Street Journal revealed.

The outlet saw company documents showing that a Facebook investigation team was tracking a human trafficking market in the Middle East

whose organizers were using Facebook services.

What appeared to be employment agencies were actually advertising domestic workers that they might offer

against their will

, according to the Journal.

The BBC published an extensive undercover investigation of the practice, prompting Apple to threaten to remove Facebook from its app store, the US newspaper said.

The Wall Street Journal article revealing the internal document.

WSJ photo

An internal note revealed that Facebook was aware of the practice even before then: a Facebook researcher wrote in a 2019 report, "

Was this problem known on Facebook prior to the BBC investigation and Apple's escalation? ?

"

Underneath the question it is clearly stated: "

Yes

. Throughout 2018 and the first half of 2019, we conducted the global understanding exercise to fully understand how domestic servitude manifests itself on our platform throughout its entire life cycle. life: recruitment,

facilitation and exploitation ".

The test: "Yes, they were aware."

WSJ photo

The Wall Street Journal also reported Thursday how Facebook's AI content moderators

cannot detect most of the languages ​​used on the platform

, a necessary skill if the company is to monitor content in foreign markets where it has expanded. .

This is problematic: The document found that human moderators cannot speak the languages ​​used in those markets, leaving a blind spot in the company's efforts to crack down on harmful content.

One result was that drug cartels and human traffickers used the platform to conduct business, according to the Journal.

Apple and Facebook did not immediately respond to the Journal's requests for comment.

The "Facebook files"

The Wall Street Journal ran an article almost daily this week.

AFP photo

They are uncovering several controversies This week the Wall Street Journal began publishing

a series of articles

based on an internal Facebook document that it was able to access.

It emerged on Tuesday that an internal investigation by the company recently concluded that its popular

Instagram

image and video platform

, owned by the company led by Mark Zuckerberg, is toxic to its users, especially teenage girls.

"32% of girls say that when they feel bad about their body,

Instagram makes them feel worse,"

details the internal report called 'The Facebook files', which the Wall Street Journal had access to.

"Comparisons with what they see on Instagram can alter the way young women perceive and describe themselves," the document concludes.

According to the document, Facebook studied for years how Instagram affects its users for three years.

In 2019, an internal presentation revealed that the social network

"worsens mental problems about self-image in one in three adolescents."

Another of the slides cited in the research indicates that "among teenagers with suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users pointed out that the origin of their suicidal desire was Instagram."

The information published by the US media consists of messages, slides and internal documents of the company, which show that its top executives were aware of this damage, they chose to ignore it.

Everything that is being published can be found on the Wall Street Journal site, under the newsgroup "The Facebook Files."

Look also

Instagram admits in internal documents that it is toxic to teenagers

Texas Sets Strong Precedent Against Facebook: Now Illegal to Delete Accounts for "Political Posture"

Source: clarin

All tech articles on 2021-09-18

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