Social Media Platforms' Response to Terrorism and AI Challenges

Facebook's former director of global security, Kara, discusses how social media platforms respond to attacks and the challenges of misinformation.

### Social Media Platforms' Response to Recent Events and Challenges
* 👥  Social media platforms are now focused on **quickly identifying and removing content related to attacks**, making the platform **hostile to such actors**.
* 🔍  Platforms are working with community operations, engineers, policy teams, and global security to **identify attackers and prevent misinformation spread**.
* 🚫  It is crucial for platforms to be prudent and **wait for the full picture** before making any announcements or decisions related to attacks.
* 🤖  The rapid advancement of AI technology is making it increasingly challenging to discern **truth from synthetic media**.
* 🛡️  Platforms need to gain trust by showing they are **neutral arbiters of information**, especially after past controversies like the **Hunter Biden laptop story**.
* 🔮  The potential impact of future policies on technology is uncertain, but the GOP platform is generally **pro-crypto, AI development, and space**.
* 💬 " The whole M.O. of these teams is to make the platform **hostile to these types of actors**." - Former Facebook Global Security Director
* 💬 " Big tech platforms have to do a much better job of showing that they're **more neutral arbiters of information**." - Former Facebook Global Security Director

You served as director of the Tech Policy Center. With research focusing on big tech emerging technology policy. What's so fascinating is your prior role at Facebook as well. Facebook's global security counterterrorism analysis program. You helped create it. You led it. Give us the sense of what ultimately the social media platforms are doing right now to respond to the weekend. Well, it's a far cry from what I used to do starting in 2016, where we were essentially building an airplane in mid-flight. So what happens in a situation like this? I was specifically devoted to foreign Islamist terrorism. So it was a very different animal. But at the same time, what all of these teams are working together, what they think companies are doing, they're working with their community operations teams, they're working with their engineers, usually the trust and safety engineers. They're working with their policy teams. They're working with people in global security, like the team that I led.

And they're trying to identify if the attacker attacker was on the platform, if he has active accounts, if he was ever on the platform, if he posted anything.
They're trying to potentially take down some of that information for. So the public can't necessarily see it and instigate copycat attacks and whatnot. But ultimately, they are trying to identify the perpetrator in the minutes after those attacks that happen and get them off the platform. The whole M.O. of these teams is to make the platform hostile to these types of actors. And that's what they're going to be doing in the moments after an attack breaks on the news like this. Kara, good morning and thank you for coming on, Bloomberg Technology. I'd like to just focus on on what happened the last 48 hours. The social media discussion immediately following the attack on former President Trump, but also the sort of continued sharing of content.

And one thing that I noticed I reflect on is how many people discussing the platform acts and how they were pleased, basically to be able to get information so quickly. But as Dave just pointed out in her reporting, within this stuff shared on access, much of it was misinformation. It was false. How do you balance speed of access to information, to the check that you have to get it right? It is a very, very difficult question. And my best advice, having been a counterterrorism analyst for the Department of Defense for six years and then having worked in counterterrorism at the platform level, a lot of big tech company is to wait to be very prudent about, number one, even identifying the attacker. We knew in the couple of minutes after this there were different pictures of who it could have potentially been floating around on social media. They were wrong. There are other pictures. They were wrong. So I think the act of prudence in this case is to wait to try to get the full

picture.
And you know, what's really interesting, too, is there is a cohort of open
source analysts who are digging through a lot of this information.
They're working it many times on their own.
They're they're not necessarily employed by these big tech companies.
They're not even vendors or contracted out.
But they're digging through a lot of the information.
They're putting the pieces together. But my advice to everyone, just people
that are looking at voyeurs, just wait. The full story eventually comes out.
But in terms of weighting the scales in either way, I think big tech platforms
have to do a much better job of showing that they're more neutral arbiters of
information, because, as the Bloomberg reporter said prior to this, you know,
tech has been under a microscope because they haven't gotten so many of the
calls. Right.
Look at the Hunter Biden laptop story when Twitter was breaking the links to
the demands for that legitimate story in

the 2020 campaign.
So big tech has a lot of making up to do when it comes to this.
They don't have the trust of the people, and I would say rightly so.
It was interesting that ahead of all of this matter did indeed, as it had said,
it would do, lift all restrictions on Trump's accounts ahead of the US
election. It was understood.
And I'm interested as as we do, try and gain trust.
It also at a time where we've got artificial intelligence and technology
working against us in terms of really understanding the true nature of things.
How much is that making life ever more difficult?
I think it's exacerbating it to the nth degree.
I mean, you look at AI and I'm a big fan of Hey, I'm a big fan and pro-innovation
when it comes to open sourcing these models and these tools.
I think that's going to take us farther than our foreign adversary counterparts
who are working on more closed models of

these large language models, etc., etc..
So I am a big fan of. I want to get that out front.
But as we say in the tech community, if you build it, they will come.
Bad actors are always going to co-opt technology that outpaces attempts to
government. This technology is developing even more
rapidly than I even foresaw when I was working with it in 2017, and then
researching it in 2018. Now we were talking of an AI winter back
then, another AI winter, and yet with the explosion of DPD for now called Chat
GPT. I mean, it looks like.
These technologies are because they can tailor information, amplify information,
and do all of this at machine speed and scale.
That's the kicker, machine speed and scale.
We are going to see a world of synthetic media where the truth is going to be
harder and harder to discern and puts a lot of onus on the platform to get it
right at the outset.

CARR: We have a question from one of our audience members, which is how much of Project 2025 will actually make it into the GOP platform? Let's answer that in the lens of technology, please. Yeah. So we don't know what's in Trump's mind or Trump's campaign's mind, but we do know what the platform has said. The platform is pro crypto. The platform is pro AI development, and the platform is pro space. So I think when it comes to what the Trump campaign and a potential Trump presidency second Trump presidency is going to do, I don't speak for them, but it looks like they're trying to paint an affirmative agenda in a affirmative vision of the things that they are for when it comes to technology rather than the things that they are against. So I would expect a lot of pro innovation to take place under a potential second Trump presidency.

Disinformation Swirls on Social Media After Trump Attack

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Bloomberg Technology

The Role of Social Media Platforms in Responding to Attacks

Former director of the Tech Policy Center discusses the current response of social media platforms to attacks, highlighting the collaboration of various teams such as community operations, engineers, and global security.

The focus is on identifying attackers, taking down their information, and making the platform hostile to such actors to prevent further incidents.

The discussion also addresses the ongoing sharing of content related to the attacks on social media.

Balancing Speed and Accuracy in Accessing Information

A former Department of Defense counterterrorism analyst advises big tech companies to be prudent in identifying attackers and to wait for the full picture before sharing information.

Open source analysts, not employed by tech companies, are also working to piece together information.

Big tech platforms are urged to do a better job of being neutral arbiters of information and to improve their track record in handling sensitive stories.

Big Tech's Trust Issues and the Impact of AI on Society

Big Tech is facing a trust crisis, especially after lifting restrictions on Trump's accounts before the US election, exacerbating the difficulty of gaining trust.

The rapid development of AI and synthetic media is making it increasingly challenging to discern the truth, putting a heavy responsibility on platforms to get it right from the start.

Open sourcing AI models is favored, but the technology's rapid advancement is outpacing governmental regulation and being co-opted by bad actors.

The GOP Platform's Stance on Technology in a Potential Second Trump Presidency

The GOP platform for a potential second Trump presidency is supportive of crypto, AI development, and space exploration.

It aims to promote an affirmative agenda for technology innovation.

The platform suggests a strong focus on pro-technology policies and initiatives in the event of a second Trump presidency.