Facebook deploys AI in its fight against hate speech and misinformation

Even in the year 2020, it's not very hard to be led astray on Facebook. Click a few misleading links and you can find yourself at the bottom of an ethnonationalist rabbit hole facing a flurry of hate speech and medical misinformation. But with the help of AI and machine learning systems, the social media platform is accelerating its efforts to keep this content from spreading. It's bad enough that we're having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic without being bombarded on Facebook with ads for sham cures and conspiracy theories passed off as the gospel truth. The company is already partnering with 60 fact checking organizations to fight this disinformation and has issued a temporary ban to halt the sale of PPE, hand sanitizers, and cleaning supplies on the platform since the start of the outbreak in March.