Big Advertisers, Social Media Giants Define Hate Speech

Social media companies and many of their biggest advertisers have agreed to work together on hate speech—starting by identifying it. They report already having a consensus on 11 definitions of harmful content, Axios reports. The effort involves the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, created last year to ensure brand safety. Ad agencies, associations and clients such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble are involved, as are Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The social media companies remain free to impose their own standards on their platforms. GARM sets industry standards on other advertising issues as well, but members aren't required to follow them.

A goal of GARM from the beginning has been to make sure members' ads don't appear next to problematic content, per TechCrunch. Next month, the organization said, a working group will address hate speech and "acts of aggression." Facebook said the focus will be on measurement, audits and suitability controls involving hate speech. YouTube said it wants to "identify and treat harmful content in a consistent way in order," while pointing out it reserves the last word on its site. Twitter said it's all for "industry standards and frameworks for content monetization." (More hate speech stories.)