The most prominent observations were related to the Meta Company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and to a lesser extent the Or violence, using what are known as algorithms to implement this policy.
According to Walid Haggag, an information security expert and member of the Digital and Information Infrastructure Committee of the Supreme Council of Culture in Egypt, content control is done through a set of software that contains mathematical equations that perform specific functions for either the platform or the user, depending on the field in which it is used, which are known as algorithms.
Hajjaj added in an interview with Sky News Arabia that these functions change from time to time according to the development of algorithms and tools used, including the issue of content recognition.
An information security expert explained how algorithms work:
- When installing any program, it presents you with terms of use according to a mechanism that is subject to the terms and conditions agreement that the user usually agrees to before creating the account, and users often click on it without reading it.
- Artificial intelligence is fueled by algorithms that give it the ability to recognize content.
- The platform’s administration uses algorithmic mechanisms to control posts by deleting them or deleting images, according to what suits its policies.
- Algorithms can be circumvented by adding some kind of noise to images so that the AI program fails to recognize them.
- Publications are circumvented by writing names in parts, or adding punctuation marks to them such as an asterisk or something else.
- Some gimmicks work and some do not, but over time these methods are discovered and dealt with.
- When AI fails to recognize a post that does not comply with platform policies, our reporting staff can detect and act on it.
- Movements linked to Israel submitted thousands of complaints against pro-Hamas and anti-Israel publications.
- Artificial intelligence learns over time and can recognize and develop itself. You may find posts that have not been deleted, but the platform returns after a while to delete them again.
Hajjaj stressed that the term “algorithmic war” means the war of posts on social media sites, as the platform has tools to delete posts, and users have means to escape from these tools, and so on.
For his part, Information Technology and Digital Transformation Consultant, Islam Ghanem, confirms that communication platforms implement their policies through a list they have in which certain words are placed, and if posts containing these words appear, they take action with them.
Ghanem explained to Sky News Arabia that the monitoring mechanism of these platforms is based on the following:
- Algorithms are codes that control whether a post appears or hides it completely.
- When you are interested in a specific field by interacting with its posts, the codes monitor this interaction and show you posts related to this field.
- These algorithms work through keywords and images that are recognized by artificial intelligence and contain words such as (Gaza, Palestine, Israel, ISIS) and others.
- If these keywords appear in violation of the platform’s policy, automatic measures are taken, starting with reducing interaction with posts, then temporarily stopping the account, and ending with stopping the account permanently.
- With the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, words related to this conflict were added to increase the number of keywords.
- Sometimes the post is not deleted, but it is prevented from being published.
- Models have emerged to circumvent the workings of automated algorithms, and to do this, Meta reported that it relies on employees reviewing Arabic and Hebrew content regarding developments in the war in Gaza.
- If the algorithms are successfully circumvented through posts that violate the platform’s policy, the staff team will delete these posts, especially when their prevalence rate is high.
- When the post is deleted, its owner can object by writing to the company, but if the post is proven to conflict with the platform or company policy, the account will be suspended partially or completely.
#Algorithmic #war…the #game #cat #mouse #continues #platforms #users