Facebook's chief security officer hits back at people criticizing the company over fake news and ads

pulse

October 7, 2017 6:44 PM

Alex Stamos took to Twitter early Saturday with some counter-points to popular critiques of Facebook's algorithms.

Facebook cyber security officer Alex Stamos took to Twitter early Saturday to address critiques that the social media company didn't think critically enough about its new policy to have humans monitor political advertisements instead of algorithms.

The new policy, first reported by Axios on Saturday, comes out of concerns over how Facebook ads sold to Russia may have impacted the 2016 US presidential election.

In his Tweetstorm, Stamos called out what he sees as "the real gap between academics/journalists and SV (Silicon Valley)," after reading a thread from Quinta Jurecic, a member of the Washington Post's editor board.

Jurecic wrote that Facebook having humans monitor content instead of algorithms perpetuates the idea that code is a "neutral god." She said that it's problematic when people forget that algorithms are designed by humans, and contain human errors and biases as well.

Stamos, however, said the people behind Facebook's algorithms are well aware of these human biases. He said such critiques of Silicon Valley trivialize how complicated the issues are, and overlook the fact that people on the inside are actively aware of some of the biggest concerns.

Here's the full thread:

I appreciate Quinta's work ... @ Alex Stamos

I am seeing a ton of covera... @ Alex Stamos

Nobody of substance at the ... @ Alex Stamos

In fact, an understanding o... @ Alex Stamos

For example, lots of journa... @ Alex Stamos

Without considering the dow... @ Alex Stamos

A bunch of the public resea... @ Alex Stamos

So if you don't worry about... @ Alex Stamos

Likewise all the stories ab... @ Alex Stamos

My suggestion for journalis... @ Alex Stamos

And to be careful of their ... @ Alex Stamos