Facebook creates Instagram Equity team to spot bias

San Francisco, Sep 9 (IANS) Facebook on Wednesday announced a dedicated product group called the Instagram Equity team that will focus on better understanding and addressing bias in its product development and peoples experiences on the photo sharing app.The equity team will focus on creating fair and equitable products, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, wrote in a blog post. "This includes working with our Responsible AI team to ensure algorithmic fairness," he added.In addition, the team will create new features that respond to the needs of underserved communities. Mosseri said the company will hire a new Director of Diversity and Inclusion for Instagram who will help advance the goal of finding, keeping and growing more diverse talent. He said that Instagram has removed 23 different banned organisations, over half of which supported white supremacy. "In addition, we recently announced updates to take action on organizations tied to violence, such as QAnon".The social network last month removed over 790 groups, 100 Pages and 1,500 ads tied to far-right conspiracy theory group QAnon from Facebook, blocked over 300 hashtags across Facebook and Instagram, and additionally imposed restrictions on over 1,950 Groups and 440 Pages on Facebook and over 10,000 accounts on Instagram.Mosseri said the company consulted over 50 leading experts specialising in recommendation systems, social computing, freedom of expression, safety, civil and digital rights in developing these new guidelines.
--IANS na/