INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightReutersImage caption
Employees face difficult questions from friends and family, especially during the
holidays
Facebook has created a chatbot to help its own employees answer tricky questions from friends and family over the
holiday season.The Liam bot answers queries about how the social network handles hate speech and disinformation and can even offer advice
about helping locked-out users.Facebook said it was responding to requests from its staff.In the past, employees have been offered guidance
on what to say to relatives via email
Facebook told TheIndianSubcontinent News: "Our employees regularly ask for information to use with friends and family on topics that have
been in the news - especially around the holidays."We put this into a chatbot, which we began testing this spring."A chatbot is a piece
software that uses artificial intelligence to carry out a conversation.If Liam is asked about how Facebook handles hate speech, it will
offer the following points:Facebook consults with experts on the matterIt has hired more moderators to police its contentIt is working on AI
to spot hate speechRegulation is important for addressing this issuesThe bot also offers links to company blog posts or news
releases.Facebook has faced a series of controversies during the past few years, including questions about the role it plays in elections,
with the spread of fake news and disinformation
It is also struggling to recover its reputation in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw the data of millions of users
harvested without consent.The response on Twitter was mixed, with some describing the chatbot as "dystopian" and "sad".The New York Times,
which was the first to break the story, tweeted: "Friends and family can ask difficult questions over the holiday season about where you
work - especially if you work at Facebook."John Thornhill, innovation editor at the Financial Times, tweeted: "You couldn't make it up."
