Facebook Looking To Apparently Provide Suicide Prevention & Intervention Software. Helpful Or Harmful?
I had intended for this post to be another of the "big brother is watching" style contributions but for something different I'd like to just present some points and solicit your comments as I'd like to see where my feelings fit in the steemit user spectrum.
abc.net.au
The article in question is entitled "Facebook is looking to roll out its suicide prevention software worldwide" and can be found here
Some starting points taken from the article for discussion:
- Facebook wants to start monitoring your social media feed for signs of suicidal thoughts.
- Facebook says it does that by scanning Facebook posts and live videos for words and phrases that could signal suicidal intent.
- The system also monitors how you respond to those posts.
- Once the software has identified a user who may be considering suicide, it alerts a team of specialists.
- That team can then alert the authorities if necessary or point the user to support services, such as helplines, where they can get advice.
- To accelerate the process, Facebook said it was using artificial intelligence and automation where possible.
- Facebook hasn't said where they'll be rolling out the software next, but it says the aim is to eventually have it operating worldwide.
- It will not, however, be rolled out in the European Union (EU) due to "sensitivities".
So to keep this post short, what do you think? An inevitable and inexcusable invasion of privacy especially when considering the authorities could be called? A slippery slope leading to the live policing of anything and everything? A wonderful use of technology? Perhaps a philanthropic contribution to the welfare on the online community?
I'm interested in your points of view! Thanks in advance.
Not sure about this.....they already monitor everything, I mean I could be just saying, "I've had a killer of a day" and a team of people in white coats turn up and carry me away. Not sure if this is an answer (these are just my thoughts) Sadly we (NZ) have one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. There are amazing people out there (NZ) who invest alot of time with those at risk, and it seems when they are taken OFF social media and shown other skills (bush, art, helping other, sport etc, they do really well. Again, just my thoughts
Very sensible thoughts there. Suicide is one of those untouchable words that society says you can't question. Anything sold as a suicide preventer must be good, even of the real goal is simply the tool to monitor and call the fuzz. Totally agree that social media is probably ironically one of the contributing factors anyway. Thanks for your thoughts from NZ @madein-hisimage 👍
I find this pretty intrusive, but hopefully, since I joined Steemit almost two months ago, I didn't spent an hour (summed) on facebook and I amreally proud of that. Here I found a lot of valuable information and articles to read!
Agree mate, and welcome. My only time on facebook now is to laugh at how junk the content is. I'm basically never on it and that's a good thing. Intrusive is exactly the word. Drives me even further away!
carry on
For me now Facebook is not useful, because Facebook is now a lot of share issues or news that is not sure, different from steemit, with our work or share the story we get wages even if not how. thank you for sharing, do not forget to upvote, like my post and follow me @muchtarudin, I will follow you back,
Interesting!! If you're interested in learning how FB implements this type of technology come check us out
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I think there's gonna be lots of false alarms and few legitimate ones. Most times even closest people to ones who commit suicide can't see it. Plus that, in many cases people get triggered instantly by some kind of a nervous breakdown. However, I think Facebook is in the right path. Not enough attention is given to this issue and even if this project fails, it's gonna lead into something better. At least I hope so.
That's a good point. Issues of privacy and invasion aside, awareness is an orthogonal consideration and I agree, an important one. It's got us talking about it here for example! Thanks for the contribution 😊
Perfect