The business investigated and disabled an artificial intelligence-powered function that was used to push the message to Facebook users who recently viewed a video showing Black males from a British newspaper. The firm investigated and disabled the feature that was used to push the message.
One of the incidents featured in the video, which was uploaded by UK tabloid the Daily Mail in June 2020, involved a group of black men getting into an argument with a white individual on a road in Connecticut, and another featured a group of black men getting into an argument with white police officers in Indiana before being detained.
A Facebook spokesman described it as a “obviously unacceptable mistake” and said that the recommendation algorithms at the heart of the problem has been taken down.
“We sincerely apologise to anybody who may have been offended by these suggestions,” Facebook stated in response to a question from news agency AFP. “We regret to anyone who may have been outraged by these remarks.”
