Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Timnit Gebru (she/her).  ·  last week

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🗣️🗣️🗣️ Announcing new work from DAIR which is very close to my heart, 3 years in the making.

When #TigrayGenocide, the deadliest genocide of the 21st century thus far, started in November 2020, it was 1 month before I got fired from Google. Unlike Tigrayans whose sisters were being raped & parents murdered, I didn’t know exactly what was happening on the ground & who to believe. But I saw the genocidal speech targeting Tigrayans on social media, particularly from Eritreans, in Tigrinya. 🧵

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Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Timnit Gebru (she/her).  ·  last week

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I told people at Google about this, and asked them to build language technology and at the very least, have basic moderation, in so-called "under-resourced languages” like Tigrinya. Although we were at Google, any concerns sent to YouTube went into a void never to even be acknowledged. The same VP who sent an “anonymous” letter to HR telling me to retract my paper and setting the stage for my firing, however, commented that plenty of work was being done in that arena.
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Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Timnit Gebru (she/her).  ·  last week

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But contrary to his claims and Yann LeCun’s lies saying that “95% of hate speech on facebook is removed by ‘AI’,” all social media is essentially 4chan in these languages and contexts.

We have now spent 3 years documenting these failures. We had no language technology to do this–not even the equivalent of a spell checker. So we partnered with Lesan founded by Asmelash Teka to create those tools.

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Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Timnit Gebru (she/her).  ·  last week

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We collaborated with content moderators like Fasica to understand the horrific working conditions of moderators.

Imagine your family going through one of the worst sieges in recorded history with nothing going in & out for 2 years, and the longest continuous internet shutdown ever recorded, and moderating genocidal content targeting your people. One of the moderators saw his cousin being murdered because that was a video routed to him. He wasn’t even allowed to take a short mental health break.

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Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Timnit Gebru (she/her).  ·  last week

Content Warning

See Fasica's report at https://data-workers.org/fasica/

I will never forget the genocidal mania among the Ethiopian intelligentsia. It was a popular genocide, with your “progressive” diaspora falling over themselves to deny and justify it. The least we can do is raise awareness about what has happened and what is about to happen.

You can find our work thus far on https://www.dair-institute.org/tigray-genocide/.

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Timnit Gebru (she/her).
Timnit Gebru (she/her).  ·  last week

Content Warning

More importantly, we have put out a statement describing the unbridled war mongering currently spreading on all social media platforms, further setting the stage for all out war between Ethiopia and Eritrea: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/tigray-social/. Please send it over to anyone who will listen & can do something about it. Our people can’t afford another war.

If you do nothing else, please watch this short video narrated by Fasica, Nuredin, and exiled Ethiopian journalist @ZekuZelalem
https://peertube.dair-institute.org/w/wTpAFSQkB21YfMVfEpVLK8?start=0s

datum (n=1)
datum (n=1)  ·  last week

Content Warning

Canadians, we can ask candidates in this election: if Canada wants to be a global peacekeeping leader, what will their party promise to do to de-escalate Eritrea and Ethiopia?

If we want to be taken seriously as a nation we need to act accordingly.

https://dair-community.social/@timnitGebru/114343592176909641

@timnitGebru

#Canada#CDNPoli#Election#Peacekeeping#Eritrea#Ethiopia#ElbowsUp

Boud
Boud  ·  last week

Content Warning

@timnitGebru @ZekuZelalem

All 153 states parties to the Genocide Convention are obliged to act to prevent genocide under Article I. Maybe something viable on Fedi is to raise this at MEP (members of Euro Parl) level to officially call on Facebook/TikTok/Twitter/YouTube to urgently implement moderation by people with genuine local expertise in order to prevent genocide.

Any followers feel free to forward to your MEPs or other politicians like @marinetondelier .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_the_Genocide_Convention

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