Governments must check to see if Facebook is really removing facial recognition, says Frances Haugen, Marketing & Advertising News, AND BrandEquity

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen welcomed Facebook’s announcement that it would remove facial recognition, but urged the government to closely monitor the move to ensure the social network lives up to its pledge.

Facebook made the announcement on Tuesday, in part in response to growing scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers over user safety and abuse on its platforms. Activists criticized fingerprints as a serious threat to privacy.

“I strongly encourage government surveillance,” Haugen said.

“When they say we got rid of it, what does that really mean,” she asked. “There needs to be more transparency about how these operations are working to make sure they are actually going.”

Ahead of a meeting with the German Minister of Justice, the whistleblower, who has leaked a wealth of damaging material on the inner workings of Facebook, added that the “principle-based” regulations of the European Union and Britain was more effective at constraining tech companies than the more rigid regulation of the United States. rules-based approach.

Europe also had a special role to play in ensuring that Facebook improves its monitoring of content in languages ​​other than English.

Facebook has come under fire for failing to act against hate speech in languages ​​ranging from Burmese to Greek even as it steps up its surveillance of English-language posts following the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

“A linguistically diverse place like Europe can be an advocate for all who do not speak English in the world,” she said. “The reality is that Facebook has drastically under-invested in safety and security systems for all languages ​​other than English.”