Facebook Algorithms Take Down WordPress Lawyer's Post About Idiocy Of Algorithmic Takedowns

from the that's-an-exclamation-point dept

Tue, Sep 20th 2016 8:29am — Mike Masnick

We've had a lot of talk lately about the idiocy of automated content blocking, whether done by Facebook or by big movie studios like Warner Bros. issuing automated DMCA takedowns on its own site. Paul Sieminski*, the General Counsel for Automattic, was asked by Corporate Counsel magazine for his opinions on the WB takedowns (warning: possible registration or paywall). In it, Sieminski notes:

In the first six months of 2016, WordPress received 4,258 DMCA takedown notices, 9 percent of which were rejected as abusive, according to the company's Transparency Report. And though those numbers are nowhere near the volume of, say, Google, the costs of those abuses are high, Sieminski says. "There's really a big chilling effect on speech, especially controversial speech, because there's a very handy tool to use to remove that type of reporting from the internet," he says. "And as a company, we have to invest in the human resources … to sift through the mountain of notices we get."

There are some more interesting quotes in there as well. Having himself featured in Corporate Counsel Magazine seems like reason enough for a Facebook post, so Paul posted a link to the story on Facebook as well, with a little blurb noting how it was "fun" to be quoted, and how such automated takedowns "happen hundreds of times a day, but make the news only occasionally."

Can you guess what happened next? Of course you can...

Facebook's automated takedown algorithms decided that Paul's brief post and link about how bad automated takedowns are... got taken down, because irony lives.

Meta. Posted an article about erroneous, bot driven, internet takedowns. Post was just wrongly removed by Facebook. https://t.co/XSmX2weHf3
— Paul Sieminski (@pesieminski) September 18, 2016

Facebook claims that posting about automated takedowns and how they're problematic somehow violates its Community Standards. Obviously, this is a mistake (yet another one) by Facebook's autotakedown system, but it really does help highlight the point of how problematic this kind of system can be, when perfectly legitimate speech is silenced, because a bot thinks it's bad.

* Full disclosure: Automattic recently sponsored & hosted our event on copyright reform, and Paul was our main contact there for that event.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: algorithms, automated takedowns, copyright, dmca, paul sieminski, social media
Companies: automattic, facebook

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Mason Wheeler (profile), 20 Sep 2016 @ 6:52am

Again, this is why the DMCA takedown system (calling it a "safe harbor" is an Orwellian abuse of our language) needs to be done away with. Nothing should be forcibly taken down until it has been demonstrated in a court of law that it's illegal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 8:45am
  
  Re:
  Because they got government to agree that everyone is guilty until proven innocent and American Citizen tend to agree with that philosophy. Well... actually humanity tends to agree with that philosophy.
  
  The idea of innocent until proven guilty is in reality, extremely difficult to maintain. There is a reason why the founding fathers said things like...
  
  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
  
  The natural flow of government is towards tyranny.
  
  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
  
  That last one is in the Declaration of Independence... a Document that has essentially been declared an act of Terrorism under our new laws!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 8:49am
    
    Re: Re:
    The natural flow of government is towards tyranny
    
    Shhhh, don't tell the regressives that or they will quit voting for Dems.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 11:15am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      The natural flow of society is toward tyranny.
      
      If you remove government you get anarchy, which leads to tyranny by the back filling of the void by warlords and megalomaniac "leaders".
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 11:37am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        So the answer is just enough government? I like that answer far better than what the left has to offer.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 4:27pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I think most people want "just enough government"; everything else is just a difference of opinion about what that actually means.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
AricTheRed (profile), 20 Sep 2016 @ 8:45am

Automatic take downs = Fight Club
the 1st rule of Automatic Takedowns?

Never Talk about AUTOMATIC TAKEDOWNS!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Padpaw (profile), 20 Sep 2016 @ 10:07am

Blizzard entertainment does something similar where exposing their mistakes when it comes to talking about bans and censorship gets you banned and censored on their websites
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ben Lien, 20 Sep 2016 @ 11:40am

...our robot overlords
To me, this is just a signal from our robot overlords that they are listening and don't appreciate us talking badly about them. We really could be more respectful toward them...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mat (profile), 20 Sep 2016 @ 12:14pm

huh
... If I wanted to make sure my audience never heard about the issue I'd write my removal program to remove mentions about it... So program working as planned?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ninja (profile), 20 Sep 2016 @ 12:54pm

We need decentralized networks where the only one that can take down anything is the original creator of the post. Actually we need that in about every single system that accepts user generated content.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- amberb (profile), 22 Sep 2016 @ 5:04am
  
  Re:
  Sounds like you just found your next project. Make it happen!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 1:10pm

If Facebook had a gun.
It's not my fault I shot that person in the head. I was holding an *automatic* pistol. All I did was hold it to their head and pull the trigger. The gun did the rest, so don't blame me!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2016 @ 6:15pm
  
  Re: If Facebook had a gun.
  And except for that one murder you are an "otherwise law-abiding citizen" naturally. They should give you a pass
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2016 @ 2:14pm

"Facebook claims that posting about automated takedowns and how they're problematic somehow violates its Community Standards."

Facebook is claiming? Or is it the automated takedown bots claiming the violation? Maybe the robots are just looking out for their jobs?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Rob, 20 Sep 2016 @ 4:41pm

Mistake?
Obviously, this is a mistake

You sure about that?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
curmudgeoninchief, 21 Sep 2016 @ 6:51pm

Kind of "Meta", wasn't it?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
John85851 (profile), 22 Sep 2016 @ 2:26pm

But Facebook is a private site with its own rules
I'm confused. Why are people blaming the government or calling this tyranny?

The fact is that Facebook is a private site with its own rules of what it (or its bots) will allow to be posted. If we don't like it, we should switch to another platform, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, or start something new. And if enough of us start to leave Facebook over these issues, maybe they'll start changing their rules.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]