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By Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy

Today we removed 2,632 Pages, Groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram. The operations we found were connected to Iran, Russia, Macedonia and Kosovo. We didn’t find any links between these sets of activities, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing.

We are constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re taking down these Pages and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted. In each case, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action.

While we are making progress rooting out this abuse, as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge because the people responsible are determined and well-funded. We constantly have to improve to stay ahead. That means building better technology, hiring more people and working more closely with law enforcement, security experts and other companies. Their collaboration was critical to these investigations.

We’ll update this post with more details when we have them, or if the facts change.

What We’ve Found So Far

Today we removed 513 Pages, Groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of multiple networks tied to Iran. They operated in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kashmir, Kazakhstan or broadly across the Middle East and North Africa. The Page administrators and account owners represented themselves as locals and made-up media entities, often using fake accounts – and they impersonated real political groups and media organizations. They posted news stories on current events and frequently repurposed and amplified content from Iranian state media about topics including sanctions against Iran; tensions between India and Pakistan; conflicts in Syria and Yemen; terrorism; tensions between Israel and Palestine; Islamic religious issues; Indian politics; and the recent crisis in Venezuela. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review linked these accounts to Iran.

Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 158 Pages, 263 Facebook accounts, 35 Groups and 57 Instagram accounts. Followers: About 1.4 million accounts followed one or more of these Pages, about 108,000 accounts joined at least one of these Groups and around 38,000 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts. Advertising: Around $15,000 in spending for ads on Facebook paid for in US dollars, Indonesian rupiah, Indian rupees, Pakistan rupees, Swiss francs and Canadian dollars. The first ad ran in December 2013 and the most recent ad ran in February 2019. We have not completed a review of the organic content coming from these accounts.

We identified some of these activities through our follow-on investigation into Iran-linked coordinated inauthentic behavior that we found and removed earlier this year. Our assessment benefited from open source reporting. We have shared information about our investigation with US law enforcement.

Below is a sample of the content posted by some of these Pages:

Caption: Palestine’s flag was fluttered at annual British Trade Union conference.

Headline: Iran is able to hinder hostile tactics

Image Text: Organizing and coordination between the UK and Zionist Regime on BBC Persian. According to information provided on the website of the British Parliament, Jenny Tonge, a member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament, has asked the Ministry of Defense why London has been using the Zionist Air Force to participate in the Cobra exercise, scheduled for this summer. A senior official in the United Kingdom recently said that the two sides are working closely together to confront Iran and Hezbollah in response to a question on military cooperation between London and Tel Aviv.

Caption: Amed News, lets cry blood, we will not forget you ever, Tehran, Mashahd, Shahin Najafi, Restart, Wednesday without suppression, White Wednesday, Human Echo, Celebrity
Image text: Neither, Ghaza nor Lebanon, my [soul] is for Iran


Caption: Viral: Iran’s fast boat threaten US aircraft carrier – For the real Muslims, don’t forget to give comment allahu akbar and click shareHeadline: Venezuela praises rejection of the United States to Trump’s interference

Separately, we removed 1,907 Facebook Pages, Groups and accounts for engaging in spam – and a small portion of these engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior – linked to Russia. The individuals behind these activities used fake accounts primarily to operate Groups and Pages posting spam content. Additionally, a small number of these posted content related to Ukrainian news and politics, including the ongoing conflict in the eastern part of Ukraine; local and regional politics; Ukrainian patriotism; refugee issues; Ukrainian military; the situation in Crimea; and corruption.

Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 86 Pages, 64 Facebook accounts and 1,757 Groups, largely engaging in spam activity. Followers: About 50,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages and around 1.7 million accounts joined one or more of these Groups. Advertising: No ad spend was found associated with these accounts.

We have shared information about our investigation with relevant law enforcement and policymakers.

Below is a sample of the content posted by some of these Pages:

Caption: Urgent! We are looking for candidates for the role of an information manager. FOR WOMEN! Work is remote and in your spare time, career opportunities. If you want to earn, you are from 18 to 60 y.o., you have average computer skills and internet access, then leave +++ in the comments or reach out in pm.

Caption: Just in! Average earnings project on monitoring from top-admin! Register here: [link]. Serious earnings with impressive turnover! It is your key for financial success! I can’t help but admire the way the platform works! Everything is fast, clear, with no delays, always on time! Pure pleasure! This project rocks! Worldwide exchange! Pays back! My deposit is 45,000 RUB….
Image Text: Earn from any spot in the world.

Headline: The number of children with autism is rising in Azerbaijan, but there are no specialists on this issue

 

Finally, we removed 212 Facebook Pages, Groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Macedonia and Kosovo. The individuals behind this activity operated fake accounts to administer Pages sharing general, non-country specific content like astrology, celebrities and beauty tips. They also ran small number of Pages purporting to represent political communities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – and posted about religious and political topics like nationalism, Islam, and political figures. Even though they tried to misrepresent themselves, we found that these Pages, Groups and accounts were linked to a network of individuals operating in Macedonia and Kosovo.

Presence on Facebook and Instagram: 40 Pages and 172 Facebook accounts. Followers: About 685,000 accounts followed one or more of these Pages. Advertising: Around $5,800 in spending for ads on Facebook paid for in US dollars, euros, pounds and Philippine pesos. The first ad ran in October 2013 and the most recent ad ran in March 2019. We have not completed a review of the organic content coming from these accounts.

Our investigation benefited from open source reporting, including from the press in Australia. We have shared information about our investigation with relevant law enforcement and policymakers.

Below is a sample of the content posted by some of these Pages:

• Activating collaboration of sustainable IoT solutions for commercial outcomes

• Showcasing IoT integration solutions that address industry challenges

• Spotlight on new approaches to e-commerce and logistics IoT solutions

 

Singapore, 22 March 2019 – Asia’s leading platform for Internet of Things (IoT) returns to drive deeper insights into critical developments in the digital sphere, with new highlights on building value chains for Smart Cities and Industrial IoT. Bringing together a diverse spectrum of participants, IoT Asia 2019 aims to facilitate the application of IoT technologies in business communities. Singapore’s champion for the Smart Nation Initiative Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs will be in attendance as guest-of-honour to deliver his opening address on 27 March 2019 at 10:30 am.

 

Jointly organised by SingEx Exhibitions and the Singapore Industrial Automation Association (SIAA), the 6th edition of IoT Asia 2019 will be held at Hall 1, Singapore EXPO, 27-28 March 2019. It will be co-located with Last Mile Fulfilment Asia 2019, which addresses the agenda of disruptive technologies and their applications in the retail fulfilment and logistics space.

 

Riding the wave of IoT transformation

Set to welcome over 6,000 international attendees, IoT Asia 2019 will showcase more than 100 technology companies, start-ups and emerging IoT players with innovative products and solutions to help businesses improve efficiency and increase bottom-line.

 

Furthering the agenda of creating collaborations in the IoT community, SIAA will be signing MOUs with the Singapore-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) and the Indonesia IoT Association on March 28 to form strategic alliances that impact innovation adoption. These MOUs will reflect the commitment of the countries in supporting the formation of an IoT-centric ecosystem that taps into the strength of shared networks and expertise.

 

“IoT trends and emerging technologies are set to reinvent the landscape by driving digital business innovation for a decade. We recognise that the adoption of IoT presents an unparalleled opportunity for us to identify the technologies that will impact businesses in multiple industries. In this context, IoT 2019 plays a key role as an enabler of technology adoption; a matchmaker of quality business leads; and a cultivator of skills development and education,” said Mr. James Boey, Executive Director, Industrial & Urban Solutions, SingEx Exhibitions.

 

Mr. Terence Teo, President, Singapore Industrial Automation Association, further commented on the impact of technology innovations: “We are at a higher stage of civilisation where it has been exponentially transformed by accelerated technological development. Undeniably, emerging technologies have helped to grow businesses through greater datadriven insights, and as the industry grows at an unprecedented rate, advanced technologies will be required to make sense of the complex bulk of digital data collected.”

 

Discover possibilities on Interchange

IoT Asia 2019 has evolved into an active ecosystem that connects other business and emerging technology communities for cross-disciplinary collaboration and implementation in multiple industries. Launched at IoT Asia last year, the Interchange team has joined hands with De/Centralize, a Blockchain community, to curate conversations with seasoned technologists that examine the intersection of IoT and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology).

 

Through interesting onsite and digital-streaming formats, Interchange will provide companies with an opportunity to identify the possibilities offered by DLT and blockchaindefined perimeters in their enterprise deployment. To facilitate this engagement and to understand why blockchain is a game changer, Interchange will address the challenges and uncover the potential opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration. (For details on the Interchange, please refer to Annex A).

 

Trending conference topics

This year’s conference kicks off with a focus on building value chains with key segments on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. IoT 2019 will delve into specific industry sectors such as e-commerce and construction with a focus on key areas of application: 1) Superior infrastructure with enhanced security via Blockchain; 2) Advanced data analytics using Artificial Intelligence 3) Data analytics and 4) Enablers

 

The conference programme features a stellar cast of international luminaries such as Saadia MUZAFFAR, Founder, TechGirls and former member of Waterfront Toronto's Digital Strategy Advisory Panel, Canada; and Martin YATES, Chief Technology Officer, South Asia & Emerging Markets, Dell EMC who will take to the Unplugged Stage for a no-holds barred discussion on the implications of smart cities.

 

Tackling the hot topic of IoT security is Prof. YU Chien Siang, Chief Innovation & Trust Officer, Amaris AI; and Oliver Meili, Head of IoT Development & Operations, Bosch Software Innovations, among others, while Anthony Burke, Professor of Architecture & Associate Dean of International & Engagement, Faculty of Design Architecture & Building, University of Technology Sydney, Australia; Joelle Chen, Director, Global Partnerships & Marketing, Intelligent Air Solutions, MANN+HUMMEL Group; and Salim Aslam, IoT Solution Architect, Social Innovation Business, Hitachi Consulting, Singapore will share insights on reimagining and redefining a truly intelligent city.

 

AI and cyber terrorism: How to manage risks?

Navigating the IoT security landscape with new technologies like 5G, blockchain and AI adds to existing challenges faced by governments and industries. We pose questions such as “how will future developments of these technologies take shape”, “what are the key considerations and implications for governments and industries”, and “what are the measures to better address security-breach concerns?”

 

Join us for an interactive discussion on “Shake-ups in the emerging IoT security landscape,” on 27 March, 3pm at the Unplugged Stage.

 

What is the future of the workplace?

Driven by progress in automation, human jobs will not disappear but rather evolve, renew and become more complex. The labour force will therefore have to acquire new skills. What are the new skills that will be in demand in an AI future? Find out how AI and humans are able to co-exist in the workforce and the types of management frameworks that have to be created to ensure successful collaborations between humans and machines.

 

Join our discussion ”Human cognitive capabilities and skills that matter for an AI future - Will we have what it takes?” on 27 March, 4pm at the Unplugged Stage.

 

Behind the design of Singapore’s first integrated “Smart district” At the forefront of Singapore's Smart Nation push is the Punggol Digital District (PDD), envisioned to be a vibrant district where cutting-edge technology and social innovation transform the way we work, live, learn and play in the future. The first district in Singapore to adopt an integrated masterplan approach – combining a business park, a university and community facilities - PDD aims to create synergies, enable close integration between industry and academia, as well as foster vibrant and strong communities.

 

Housing key growth sectors that abide within IoT such as cyber security, artificial intelligence and data analytics, the district will be an ecosystem of open innovation and a conducive test-bed environment, enabling businesses and the community to thrive in a digital economy.

 

To learn more about Singapore’s first Smart district, join us on 27 March, 1:20pm at the Centre Stage.

 

For more information on the conference programmes at IoT Asia 2019 and LMFA 2019, log on to www.internetofthingsasia.com and www.lmfasia.com.

 

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For media enquiries and interview requests, please contact:

Esther Faith Lew

Assistant Director, Marketing & Communications

SingEx Holdings Pte. Ltd.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mobile: +65 9759 7513

  

Lareina Choong

Assistant Manager, PR & Communications

SingEx Holdings Pte. Ltd.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mobile: +65 8799 4514

 

About SingEx Group

The SingEx Group comprises four closely linked companies that collectively provide a comprehensive range of integrated solutions for venue management and consultancy, exhibition and conference concept development and organising services; and international trade event related ventures. The companies under the group are subsidiaries of SingEx Holdings which is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings, one of Singapore’s largest investment holding companies.

 

Its events arm, SingEx Exhibitions, owns, develops and manages a series of new-to-market trade exhibitions and conferences in Singapore and key emerging markets. The events span across various industries including urban solutions, logistics, information technology, healthcare and commodities. Among the more than 20 new-to-market events produced yearly are the Singapore FinTech Festival, the world’s largest of its kind, IoT series, Last Mile Fulfilment series and Tyrexpo series in India, South Africa, Indonesia and Singapore.

 

SingEx Venues specialises in the management of Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) facilities and has been managing the Singapore EXPO Convention and Exhibition Centre since 1999, and its convention wing, MAX Atria, since 2012. The venues host more than 600 events and attract over six million visitors annually. For more information, log on to www.singex.com.

 

About Singapore Industrial Automation Association (SIAA)

Incorporated since 1982, SIAA is a professional association for companies and professionals in the Automation, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Robotics sectors. SIAA plays a crucial role in galvanising the Automation, IoT and Robotics (AIR) business community, through its extensive line-up of highly-valued programs and events. As SIAA spearheads the automation related initiatives, it also aims to foster industry collaboration and advancement through staging of flagship industry platforms.

 

SIAA’s member charter is to serve as the voice of members and provide members with opportunities to increase their market presence as well as to internationalize their businesses. Our task is to open doors to business opportunities in Singapore and around the region. Through our various activities, initiatives and alliances, we promote our members to local and foreign network of alliance.

 

Forming alliances with various organizations locally, regionally and on the international front is also top priority for SIAA to reach out to like-minded groups who through the strategic alliances are able to come together for greater synergy in collaborations to continue to serve our respective communities more meaningfully.

 

ANNEX A

 

IoT at a glance

Show title: IoT Asia/LMFA 2019

Dates: 27 and 28 March 2019

Venue: Hall 1 Singapore EXPO

Time: 10:00 AM

Ticket Prices: www.internetofthingsasia.com/registration

Event website: www.internetofthingsasia.com; www.lmfasia.com

Conference agenda: www.internetofthingsasia.com/conference-agenda

Speakers: www.internetofthingsasia.com/speakers

Exhibitors: www.internetofthingsasia.com/exhibitors

Organised by: SingEx Exhibitions (www.singex.com) and Singapore Industrial Automation Association (www.siaa.org)

 

Highlights at IoT Asia

 

#Unplugged Stage (Fireside chat sessions)

Be engaged in active audience participation, in an interactive conversation with speakers and practitioners with critical voices, refreshing opinions and views that challenges the status quo.

Centrestage (Smart city focus)

Hear about innovative new IoT propositions, projects and solutions by fellow influencers, decision makers and industry peers, setting and defining where the industry should be headed.

The Arena (Start-up and community sessions) Listen to innovative pitches from the world of startups where the next big thing might be blossoming.

Techspace (Institution, government association and community sessions)

Participate in engaging sessions hosted by technology enthusiasts and experts from community groups, government agencies and think tanks.

Interchange

A digital community platform that brings different industry players and communities onto a common space to address challenges or problem statements. Get connected at https://interchange.network

By Guy Rosen, VP, Product Management 

We continue to keep the people, families and communities affected by the tragedy in New Zealand in our hearts. Since the attack, we have been working directly with the New Zealand Police to respond to the attack and support their investigation. In addition, people are looking to understand how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the terrorist attack, and we wanted to provide additional information from our review into how our products were used and how we can improve going forward.

Timeline

As we posted earlier this week, we removed the attacker’s video within minutes of the New Zealand Police’s outreach to us, and in the aftermath, we have people working on the ground with authorities. We will continue to support them in every way we can. In light of the active investigation, police have asked us not to share certain details. At present we are able to provide the information below:

The video was viewed fewer than 200 times during the live broadcast. No users reported the video during the live broadcast. Including the views during the live broadcast, the video was viewed about 4,000 times in total before being removed from Facebook. Before we were alerted to the video, a user on 8chan posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site. The first user report on the original video came in 29 minutes after the video started, and 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended. In the first 24 hours, we removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload, which were therefore prevented from being seen on our services. Approximately 300,000 additional copies were removed after they were posted.

Safety on Facebook Live

We recognize that the immediacy of Facebook Live brings unique challenges, and in the past few years we’ve focused on enabling our review team to get to the most important videos faster. We use artificial intelligence to detect and prioritize videos that are likely to contain suicidal or harmful acts, we improved the context we provide reviewers so that they can make the most informed decisions and we built systems to help us quickly contact first responders to get help on the ground. We continue to focus on the tools, technology and policies to keep people safe on Live.

Artificial Intelligence

Many people have asked why artificial intelligence (AI) didn’t detect the video from last week’s attack automatically. AI has made massive progress over the years and in many areas, which has enabled us to proactively detect the vast majority of the content we remove. But it’s not perfect.

AI systems are based on “training data”, which means you need many thousands of examples of content in order to train a system that can detect certain types of text, imagery or video. This approach has worked very well for areas such as nudity, terrorist propaganda and also graphic violence where there is a large number of examples we can use to train our systems. However, this particular video did not trigger our automatic detection systems. To achieve that we will need to provide our systems with large volumes of data of this specific kind of content, something which is difficult as these events are thankfully rare. Another challenge is to automatically discern this content from visually similar, innocuous content – for example if thousands of videos from live-streamed video games are flagged by our systems, our reviewers could miss the important real-world videos where we could alert first responders to get help on the ground.

AI is an incredibly important part of our fight against terrorist content on our platforms, and while its effectiveness continues to improve, it is never going to be perfect. People will continue to be part of the equation, whether it’s the people on our team who review content, or people who use our services and report content to us. That’s why last year we more than doubled the number of people working on safety and security to over 30,000 people, including about 15,000 content reviewers, and why we encourage people to report content that they find disturbing.

Reporting

During the entire live broadcast, we did not get a single user report. This matters because reports we get while a video is broadcasting live are prioritized for accelerated review. We do this because when a video is still live, if there is real-world harm we have a better chance to alert first responders and try to get help on the ground.

Last year, we expanded this acceleration logic to also cover videos that were very recently live, in the past few hours. Given our focus on suicide prevention, to date we applied this acceleration when a recently live video is reported for suicide.

In Friday’s case, the first user report came in 29 minutes after the broadcast began, 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended. In this report, and a number of subsequent reports, the video was reported for reasons other than suicide and as such it was handled according to different procedures. As a learning from this, we are re-examining our reporting logic and experiences for both live and recently live videos in order to expand the categories that would get to accelerated review.

Circulation of the Video

The video itself received fewer than 200 views when it was live, and was viewed about 4,000 times before being removed from Facebook. During this time, one or more users captured the video and began to circulate it. At least one of these was a user on 8chan, who posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site and we believe that from there it started circulating more broadly. Forensic identifiers on many of the videos later circulated, such as a bookmarks toolbar visible in a screen recording, match the content posted to 8chan.

This isn’t the first time violent, graphic videos, whether live streamed or not, have gone viral on various online platforms. Similar to those previous instances, we believe the broad circulation was a result of a number of different factors:

There has been coordination by bad actors to distribute copies of the video to as many people as possible through social networks, video sharing sites, file sharing sites and more. Multiple media channels, including TV news channels and online websites, broadcast the video. We recognize there is a difficult balance to strike in covering a tragedy like this while not providing bad actors additional amplification for their message of hate. Individuals around the world then re-shared copies they got through many different apps and services, for example filming the broadcasts on TV, capturing videos from websites, filming computer screens with their phones, or just re-sharing a clip they received.

People shared this video for a variety of reasons. Some intended to promote the killer’s actions, others were curious, and others actually intended to highlight and denounce the violence. Distribution was further propelled by broad reporting of the existence of a video, which may have prompted people to seek it out and to then share it further with their friends.

Blocking the Video

Immediately after the attack, we designated this as a terror attack, meaning that any praise, support, or representation violates our Community Standards and is not permitted on Facebook. Given the severe nature of the video, we prohibited its distribution even if shared to raise awareness, or only a segment shared as part of a news report.

In the first 24 hours, we removed more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload, which were therefore prevented from being seen on our services. Approximately 300,000 additional copies were removed after they were posted.

We’ve been asked why our image and video matching technology, which has been so effective at preventing the spread of propaganda from terrorist organizations, did not catch those additional copies. What challenged our approach was the proliferation of many different variants of the video, driven by the broad and diverse ways in which people shared it:

First, we saw a core community of bad actors working together to continually re-upload edited versions of this video in ways designed to defeat our detection.

Second, a broader set of people distributed the video and unintentionally made it harder to match copies. Some people may have seen the video on a computer or TV, filmed that with a phone and sent it to a friend. Still others may have watched the video on their computer, recorded their screen and passed that on. Websites and pages, eager to get attention from people seeking out the video, re-cut and re-recorded the video into various formats.

In total, we found and blocked over 800 visually-distinct variants of the video that were circulating. This is different from official terrorist propaganda from organizations such as ISIS – which while distributed to a hard core set of followers, is not rebroadcast by mainstream media organizations and is not re-shared widely by individuals.

We’re learning to better understand techniques which would work for cases like this with many variants of an original video. For example, as part of our efforts we employed audio matching technology to detect videos which had visually changed beyond our systems’ ability to recognize automatically but which had the same soundtrack.

Next Steps

Our greatest priorities right now are to support the New Zealand Police in every way we can, and to continue to understand how our systems and other online platforms were used as part of these events so that we can identify the most effective policy and technical steps. This includes:

Most importantly, improving our matching technology so that we can stop the spread of viral videos of this nature, regardless of how they were originally produced. For example, as part of our response last Friday, we applied experimental audio-based technology which we had been building to identify variants of the video. Second, reacting faster to this kind of content on a live streamed video. This includes exploring whether and how AI can be used for these cases, and how to get to user reports faster. Some have asked whether we should add a time delay to Facebook Live, similar to the broadcast delay sometimes used by TV stations. There are millions of Live broadcasts daily, which means a delay would not help address the problem due to the sheer number of videos. More importantly, given the importance of user reports, adding a delay would only further slow down videos getting reported, reviewed and first responders being alerted to provide help on the ground. Third, continuing to combat hate speech of all kinds on our platform. Our Community Standards prohibit terrorist and hate groups of all kinds. This includes more than 200 white supremacist organizations globally, whose content we are removing through proactive detection technology. Fourth, expanding our industry collaboration through the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). We are experimenting with sharing URLs systematically rather than just content hashes, are working to address the range of terrorists and violent extremists operating online, and intend to refine and improve our ability to collaborate in a crisis.

What happened in New Zealand was horrific. Our hearts are with the victims, families and communities affected by this horrible attack.

We’ll continue to provide updates as we learn more.

By Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer

One of our top priorities is protecting people from discrimination on Facebook. Today, we’re announcing changes in how we manage housing, employment and credit ads on our platform. These changes are the result of historic settlement agreements with leading civil rights organizations and ongoing input from civil rights experts.

We’re proud that our services help businesses reach people all over the world who are interested in their products and services. Small businesses now have access to marketing tools that previously only big companies could afford. This levels the playing field so that they can reach audiences they care about. As a result, more than half of small businesses on Facebook say they’ve hired more employees due to growth since joining our platform.

Our job is to make sure these benefits continue while also making sure that our ads tools aren’t misused. There is a long history of discrimination in the areas of housing, employment and credit, and this harmful behavior should not happen through Facebook ads.

Last year, one of the US’s top housing civil rights organizations, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), as well as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and other private parties, filed litigation against us, saying that we need to build stronger protections against abuse.

Civil rights leaders and experts – including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Laura Murphy, the highly respected civil rights leader who is overseeing the Facebook civil rights audit – have also raised valid concerns about this issue. We take their concerns seriously and, as part of our civil rights audit, engaged the noted civil rights law firm Relman, Dane & Colfax to review our ads tools and help us understand what more we could do to guard against misuse.

Our policies already prohibit advertisers from using our tools to discriminate. We’ve removed thousands of categories from targeting related to protected classes such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. But we can do better.

We believe that the changes we’re announcing today as part of our settlements with the NFHA, ACLU, CWA and other groups will better protect people on Facebook:

Anyone who wants to run housing, employment or credit ads will no longer be allowed to target by age, gender or zip code. Advertisers offering housing, employment and credit opportunities will have a much smaller set of targeting categories to use in their campaigns overall. Multicultural affinity targeting will continue to be unavailable for these ads. Additionally, any detailed targeting option describing or appearing to relate to protected classes will also be unavailable. We’re building a tool so you can search for and view all current housing ads in the US targeted to different places across the country, regardless of whether the ads are shown to you.

Housing, employment and credit ads are crucial to helping people buy new homes, start great careers, and gain access to credit. They should never be used to exclude or harm people. Getting this right is deeply important to me and all of us at Facebook because inclusivity is a core value for our company.

We’re grateful to everyone who has worked with us to improve our ads tools and to the NFHA and ACLU for their leadership. Today’s changes mark an important step in our broader effort to prevent discrimination and promote fairness and inclusion on Facebook. But our work is far from over. We’re committed to doing more, and we look forward to engaging in serious consultation and work with key civil rights groups, experts and policymakers to help us find the right path forward.

To help personalize content, tailor and measure ads, and provide a safer experience, we use cookies. By clicking or navigating the site, you agree to allow our collection of information on and off Facebook through cookies. Learn more, including about available controls: Cookies Policy

By Chris Sonderby, VP and Deputy General Counsel

Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and the community affected by the horrific terrorist attacks in Christchurch. We remain shocked and saddened by this tragedy and are committed to working with leaders in New Zealand, other governments, and across the technology industry to help counter hate speech and the threat of terrorism. We continue to work around the clock to prevent this content from appearing on our site, using a combination of technology and people.

We have been working directly with the New Zealand Police to respond to the attack and support their investigation. We removed the attacker’s video within minutes of their outreach to us, and in the aftermath, we have been providing an on-the-ground resource for law enforcement authorities. We will continue to support them in every way we can. In light of the active investigation, police have asked us not to share certain details. While we’re still reviewing this situation, we are able to provide the information below:

The video was viewed fewer than 200 times during the live broadcast. No users reported the video during the live broadcast. Including the views during the live broadcast, the video was viewed about 4000 times in total before being removed from Facebook. The first user report on the original video came in 29 minutes after the video started, and 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended. Before we were alerted to the video, a user on 8chan posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site. We designated both shootings as terror attacks, meaning that any praise, support and representation of the events violates our Community Standards and is not permitted on Facebook. We removed the personal accounts of the named suspect from Facebook and Instagram, and are actively identifying and removing any imposter accounts that surface. We removed the original Facebook Live video and hashed it so that other shares that are visually similar to that video are then detected and automatically removed from Facebook and Instagram. Some variants such as screen recordings were more difficult to detect, so we expanded to additional detection systems including the use of audio technology. In the first 24 hours, we removed about 1.5 million videos of the attack globally. More than 1.2 million of those videos were blocked at upload, and were therefore prevented from being seen on our services. Member organizations of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) coordinate regularly on terrorism and have been in close contact since the attack. We have shared more than 800 visually-distinct videos related to the attack via our collective database, along with URLs and context on our enforcement approaches. This incident highlights the importance of industry cooperation regarding the range of terrorists and violent extremists operating online. We identified abusive content on other social media sites in order to assess whether or how that content might migrate to one of our platforms.

We will continue to work around the clock on this and will provide further updates as relevant.

  1. Webinar: Data Driven Content & Engagement Strategies
  2. Webinar: Customer Support
  3. A Research-Based Approach to Protecting Intimate Images
  4. Detecting Non-Consensual Intimate Images and Supporting Victims

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