Facebook sorry for labelling 65,000 Russians 'interested in treason'
London, July 12 : Facebook has apologised for labelling 65,000 Russians as "interested in treason," putting them at potential probe risk by the Russian law enforcement officials and the government, the media reported.
According to a report in The Guardian on Thursday, the advertising tools algorithmically labelled 65,000 Russians as "interested in treason".
Facebook later said the label was intended to only identify historical treason.
"Treason was included as a category, given its historical significance. Given it's an illegal activity, we've removed it as an interest category," a spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The social media giant generally tags users based on their behaviour on its platform for advertisers to select and target people interested in specific topics.
"Treason was included as a category, given its historical significance. Given it's an illegal activity, we've removed it as an interest category," a Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian.
The labelling raises new concerns over data-driven profiling.
and targeting of users on the website, which has already faced criticism for the same tool algorithmically inferring information about users' race, sexuality and political views despite data protection legislation requiring explicit consent to hold such information.
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation first raised this problem with Facebook.
The issue at hand has "raised a number of important questions about the way Facebook's advertising systems work. Our goal is to ensure people see ads that are relevant and useful. It's better for the people using our service, as well as for advertisers," Facebook said in a statement.
"When we identify misuse of our ads products, we take action. Depending on the violation, we may remove the ad, suspend the ad account or even report the advertiser to law enforcement," it added.
In a latest admission, Facebook said it entered into data-sharing partnership with 52 technology companies, including Chinese companies like Alibaba, Huawei, Lenovo and Oppo.
In its 747-page response to questions raised by a US committee, Facebook said it had already ended partnerships with 38 of them with seven more due to expire in July and one more in October this year.
The UK's data protection watchdog also plans to slap a fine of 500,000 pounds ($662,501) on Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal. This is the highest permitted fine under Britain's data protection law.
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Telangana CM urges Amit Shah to increase sanctioned strength of IPS officers in state
Hyderabad (PTI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday night and urged him to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state in view of its growing administrative and security needs.
The two leaders also discussed the recent surrender of several senior Maoist leaders before the Telangana Police and other issues.
"During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the issue of Maoist surrenders and their rehabilitation. The chief minister informed Shah that significant improvements in policing have taken place in Telangana over the past two years," an official release here said.
Highlighting that 591 Maoists have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society during this period, the chief minister said the state government was providing them compensation and rehabilitation assistance as per the rules.
He requested the Union home minister to extend financial support from the central government for development works in the backward regions of the state.
Reddy also urged Shah to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state from 83 to 105 in line with the state's growing administrative and security needs, the statement said.
The first cadre review after the formation of Telangana was conducted in 2016, while the next review, due in 2021, was delayed and finally carried out in 2025. Even then, only seven additional IPS officers were allocated to the state, the chief minister informed Shah and requested that the third cadre review be conducted in 2026 as per the schedule.
Reddy explained that Telangana, like the rest of the country, is facing several modern challenges, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, white-collar crimes, and other emerging security threats.
He highlighted the reorganisation of the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri Police Commissionerates, the proposed formation of the Future City Commissionerate and the rapidly growing population in Hyderabad to underline the increasing administrative requirements of the state.
