Last month, the House Judiciary Committee questioned Facebook and Google on hate crimes and the rise of white nationalism online. Now, it seems German WhatsApp may be becoming a cesspool for Nazi propaganda and antisemitic groups, according to reporting from BuzzFeed. On the app, nine groups — with names like “The German Storm” and “Ku Klux Klan International” — have shared message glorifying the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler, BuzzFeed reported. Some have also attempted to incite violence through the app. WhatsApp — who is owned by Facebook — has Community Guidelines prohibiting harassment. But even when combined with Germany’s own laws against Nazi imagery, the groups haven’t been taken down. Hate speech on social media platforms has been a growing problem for years. WhatsApp was listed as the sixth most common location for online hate speech in 2018, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were the platforms who secured the top three spots. Although...

Facebook announced it is updating its Custom Audience Transparency features later this month providing users with a snapshot of why they are being targeted in ads, and when companies are downloading their data. The company said in a post that the “Why am I seeing this?” explanations will be more detailed, providing users with information on which businesses have downloaded users’ data and why. Facebook has demographic targets for its advertising that are based on a user’s profile, which includes age and gender. Its interest targeting come from pages that a user likes and follows and other ads that they have clicked on. A Facebook spokesperson said that political-related ad targeting uses “a variety of signals to determine if someone might be interested in that content.” The post also mentioned that “on behalf of” agreements may impact the update—modification will have to be made for agencies who are advertising on behalf of another business. The agreements are opt-in, which gives...

Facebook has removed 22 more pages associated with Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist whose pages have been known to spread misinformation and incite violence. Jones is mostly known for making claims that 9/11 and the Sandy Hook shooting were hoaxes. The company deleted the pages following its latest policy changes that prohibit administrators of removed pages from creating duplicates. Last month, Facebook announced it would make pages more transparent and have third-party fact checkers flagging misleading or incorrect content. The company has relied upon third-party fact-checkers during the 2018 midterm elections to stop the spread of misinformation about polling locations, times and dates. Facebook’s update also covers administrators using other existing pages once their pages have been removed. Not all of the 22 newly removed pages had Jones as a direct administrator; however, there were many common administrators between those pages and the pages removed in August. Facebook began...