On 22 March 2021 our MSc students will take part in a conversation with Sam Freeman from Facebook. Sam is Production Engineer in the Integrity Foundation team. He works on integrity systems to fight abuse at scale across all platforms; Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and others. Specifically, he helps ensure that these systems are reliable, scalable, and efficient when dealing with billions of users. Sam will give a short opening and then he will take your questions.

This conversation comes about because of talk in our Media, War & Conflict seminar this term about how social media platforms are trying to police users from posting content that could make conflict more likely. We know Facebook itself is implicated in action that brought ethnic cleansing in Myanmar (story here). We may know friends or family who have received hostile messages from anonymous users. Many of you will be familiar with the role of social media in other conflicts, terrorism and other atrocities, often close to home. We will ask Sam about how they are trying to manage that.

Thanks to our MSc student Abigail Swindlehurst for making this event happen.