Are you "interested in treason"?

[arthwollipot]

Facebook labels Russian users as ‘interested in treason’

Facebook’s advertising tools algorithmically labelled 65,000 Russians as interested in treason, potentially putting them at risk from the repressive state, until the company removed the category, following inquiries from journalists.

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.

Facebook 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 said.

 

[Venom]

Yikes.

 

[casebro]

Does "A planet called treason" count?

 

[NoahFence]

Lots of Republicans here would fit that pretty well.

 

[theprestige]

I'm interested in treason. Not very interested. But at least mildly interested.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

As would be anyone interested in stopping Brexit if a certain poster had his way!

 

[The Great Zaganza]

I'm a Voyeur - I'm interested in other people's treason.

 

[casebro]

If we weren't interested in Reason, we wouldn't be here on a Skeptic site.

 

[Thermal]

I have some interest in trees

 

[casebro]

Why would we assume only the Russians were interested, and why only in Russians?

Russians might want to find Americans for conversion, CIA find Russians to use as spies, Israelis looking for potential Iranian turncoats....