FB vows to improve over criticism on extremist content

COLOMBO (News 1st): Facebook concedes that its systems are not perfect, but says they are improving, as the social media company struggles to stay ahead of a growing array of criticism over extremist content. Facebook has been accused of "auto-generating" extremist content, including a celebratory jihadist video and a business page for al-Qaeda. The material was uncovered by an anonymous whistleblower who filed an official complaint to US regulators. National Whistleblower Center based in Washington DC conducted a study which lasted five months and monitored pages of 3,000 people who liked or connected to organisations listed as terrorist groups by the US government. The study found that groups such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda were "openly" active on the social network.