Fighting Free Speech: Understanding AI's Role in Handling Sensitive Content on Social Media
Given that the internet has emerged as the single biggest platform for the facilitation of public discourse, as more and more people organize and discuss public events and policies, via blogs and social media platforms, it becomes important for us to understand the ways in which the latest digital technologies are mediating this discourse.
In contradistinction to popular imagination, at least at this point in time, the threat that AI poses is not one of world-domination by subjugating humanity but is one that deals with the ways in which AI has begun to inform everyday aspects of our lives, wherein it risks to perpetuate and exacerbate inequality. Within the realm of the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy, both of which are not only mutually reinforcing, but are also crucial in the digital age more than ever before, it is important to develop structures of accountability about how AI mediates and represses human expression on digital platforms.
Not only have studies found that governments across the world have begun using generative AI to manipulate online public discourse in their favor, but AI has also quickly become a tool for fanning disinformation. The rising use of AI on the part of social media platforms to screen their feed of content that violates their terms and conditions is another cause of concern.
However, given how it is already well-established that not only is AI an abysmal failure at understanding diverse cultural contexts, but also itself generates culturally offensive and insensitive content, this move is a dangerous one that will serve to amplify only the most dominant social identities, while simultaneously marginalizing minority voices. Beyond this, governments, including that of the US and the European Union, have also begun to harness AI to cement their censorship mechanisms, by modifying their legal frameworks in a way that mandates that digital platforms use AI to remove speech that is not considered favorable.
Therefore, with AI becoming a tool for digital repression, it is important for us to rally for the cause of a free and democratic internet. It is only by working together with experts and civil society activists that we can begin to crystallize advocacy for the ethical use of AI through the creation of formidable legal structures that prevent technology conglomerates and governments from realizing their worst totalitarian impulses that clamp down on free expression.
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