In this file photo illustration, a smart phone screen displays the logo of Facebook on a Facebook website background, on April 7, 2021, in Arlington, Virginia. AFP FILE PHOTO
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook on Friday said it disabled its topic recommendation feature after it mistook Black men for “primates” in video at the social network.
A Facebook spokesperson called it a “clearly unacceptable error” and said the recommendation software involve was taken offline.
“We apologize to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations,”
“We disabled the entire topic recommendation feature as soon as we realized this was happening so we could investigate the cause and prevent this from happening again.”
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Facial recognition software has been blasted by civil rights advocates who point out problems with accuracy, particularly it comes to people who are not white.
Facebook users in recent days who watched a British tabloid video featuring Black men were show an auto-generated prompt asking if they would like to “keep seeing videos about Primates,” according to the New York Times.
