The Washington Post - 14.11.2019

A22 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019

BY TONY ROMM

Facebook took action against
tens of millions of posts, photos
and videos over the past six
months for violating its rules that
prohibit hate speech, harassment
and child sexual exploitation, il-
lustrating the vast scale of the
tech giant’s task in cleaning up its
services from harm and abuse.
The company revealed the data
about its policy enforcement to
the world as part of its latest
transparency report, which it
said reflected its still-improving
efforts to use artificial intelli-
gence to spot harmful content
before users ever see it and outwit
those who try to evade its censors.
The report did not break down
the actions by country.
During the second and third
quarter of 2019, Facebook said it
removed or labeled more than
54 million pieces of content it
deemed violent and graphic,
18.5 million items determined to

be child nudity or sexual exploitation, 11.4 million posts that broke its rules prohibiting hate speech, and 5.7 million uploads that ran afoul of bullying and harassment policies. The company also detailed for the first time its efforts to police Instagram, revealing that it took aim at more than 1.2 million photos or videos involving child nudity or exploitation and 3 million that ran afoul of its policies prohibiting sales of illegal drugs over that six-month period. In all four categories, Facebook took action against more content between April 1 and Sept. 30 than it did in the six months prior: Previously, the company targeted nearly 53 million pieces of content for excessive violence, 13 million for child exploitation, 7.5 million for hate speech and 5.1 million for bullying. Facebook attrib- uted some of the spike in violations to its efforts to tighten its rules and more actively search and find abusive posts, photos and videos before users report them. Speaking to reporters Wednes- day, Facebook CEO Mark Zucker- berg warned against concluding that “because we’re reporting big numbers, that must mean there’s

so much more harmful content happening on our service than others. “What it says is we’re working harder to identify this and take action on it,” he said. Still, Facebook’s latest transparency report arrives as regula- tors around the world continue to call on the company — and the rest of Silicon Valley — to be more aggressive in stopping the viral spread of harmful content, such as disinformation, graphic violence and hate speech. A series of high-profile failures over the past year have prompted some law- makers, including Democrats and Republicans in the United States, to threaten to pass new laws holding tech giants respon- sible for failing to police their sites and services. The calls for regulation intensi- fied after the deadly shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March. Video of the gunman at- tacking two mosques spread rap- idly on social media, including Facebook, evading tech companies’ expensive systems for stopping such content from going viral. On Wednesday, Facebook offered new data about that inci- dent, reporting that it had removed 4.5 million pieces of con-

tent related to the attack between March 15, the day it occurred, and Sept. 30, nearly all of which it spotted before users reported it. Facebook also touted recent improvements in its use of artificial intelligence. Facebook detect- ed 80 percent of the hate speech it removed before users did, a lower rate than other areas but still an improvement for the tech giant, which has struggled to take swift action against content that tar- gets people on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity or other sensi- tive traits. In presenting the data, Zucker- berg took a shot at other tech companies for their decision to publish far less data about the content they take down and the means by which they remove it. The Facebook chief didn’t men- tion Google, which owns You- Tube, and Twitter by name. But his proposed solution — new regulation around transparency reporting — would affect those two competitors and the rest of Sili- con Valley. “As a society, we don’t know how much of this harmful content is out there and which companies are making progress,” he said. [email protected]

Facebook reveals data about its cleanup e≠orts

Millions of pieces of content that broke rules were removed or labeled

BY ROBERT BARNES

In the buildup to the Supreme
Court’s examination of whether
cable giant Comcast refused to
sign a deal with a black entertain-
er’s TV network, some advocates
argued that the case threatened
to hollow out a Reconstruction-
era civil rights statute assuring
equal contract rights for African
Americans.
But during an hour of oral
arguments Wednesday, it did not
appear that the justices agreed
such a monumental ruling was in
the offing.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts
Jr. pronounced the case “some-
what academic.” Justice Samuel
A. Alito Jr. declared it “not the big
issue that has been portrayed.”
Others suggested sending it back
to the lower court for more work.
Comedian Byron Allen filed his
$20 billion lawsuit against Com-
cast after years of unsuccessful
negotiations to carry the chan-
nels of his company, Entertain-
ment Studios Network. Comcast
has said it based its decision on
“insufficient consumer demand”
for the network’s programs, but
Allen contends that Comcast has

constantly shifted its reasoning and made comments that he in- terpreted as involving his race. Allen sued under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which says “all individuals within the United States shall have the same right... to make and en- force contracts... as is enjoyed by its white citizens.” His complaint against Com- cast was tossed out by a district court but revived by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. It has never gone to trial or even to the stage of discovering evidence. The question the Supreme Court faced was whether Enter- tainment Studios at such an early stage of litigation had to plead that race was the key reason Allen was denied a contract; in legal terms, whether he would have been successful “but for” his race. Allen contended he had only to make credible allegations that race was an issue in Comcast’s decision-making, at least in filing the complaint. Justice Elena Kagan said it would be awfully hard for a plaintiff to allege what was in a defendant’s head before discovery even began. “The question here is really what they have to allege now,” she said. Roberts hypothesized about a lengthy contracting process in which a person encountered racial animus early on. It may be reasonable to allege “that that

animus continued through, even though manifested only at one stage of the process,” he said. Miguel Estrada, a Washington lawyer representing Comcast, said it was clear in the original statute and in how it was amend- ed in 1991 that Congress intended a successful plaintiff would have to show “but-for causation.” But several justices said it would not be reasonable to make a plaintiff at an early stage rule out every other reason the company may have had for not offer-

ing a contract. “What you seem to be suggest- ing is that they’re required to anticipate every potentially inde- pendent reason you may have had without really knowing it and disproving it in the complaint,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Estrada. He said he had not suggested that, but only that “a plaintiff is required to allege facts, not con- clusory recitation of the elements of the offense.” But if the justices appeared

inclined to let Allen move for- ward with his suit, they did not seem likely to uphold the 9th Circuit ruling in his favor. (Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was ill and missed the arguments but will participate in the decision, Rob- erts said.) Justice Department lawyer Morgan L. Ratner said the appeals court had gone too far in finding that a plaintiff could pre- vail “if race played any role in a decision not to contract, even if it was not a but-for cause.”

Several justices seemed to agree the ruling went beyond what is required at the pleading stage and would make it easier for plaintiffs to win at trial. “That seems wrong, right?” Ka- gan asked Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of Califor- nia at Berkeley School of Law, who represented Allen. Chemerinsky declined invita- tions from several justices to de- nounce the appeals court decision favoring his client. But he did acknowledge that in the end, a plaintiff would probably have to prove that race was the driving factor in a defendant’s decision- making. Allen had made such a claim, Chemerinsky said, but it was enough in filing the complaint that he make credible allegations that race figured into the decision. The important part was not to make undue demands upon plaintiffs, Chemerinsky said. “When you think of Congress’s broad remedial purposes in 1866, is there a doubt that Congress wanted then to open the door to claims with regard to race dis- crimination in contracting, not to close that door?” he said. The case is Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American-Owned Media. [email protected]

Taylor Telford contributed to this report.

High court hears arguments in Comcast racial bias case

Black comedian filed suit over company’s refusal to carry his network

LARRY FRENCH/GETTY IMAGES FOR ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS Byron Allen at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. The entertainer contended he had only to make credible allegations that race was an issue in Comcast’s decision-making, at least in filing his claim.

BY ANNA FIFIELD

beijing — China’s Huawei Tech-
nologies plans to double the
amount it pays nearly all of its
194,000 employees this month
and reward them with bonuses
totaling $285 million, in recogni-
tion of the “extraordinary exter-
nal challenges” posed by the
Trump administration’s pressure
campaign.
The tech giant, which Western
officials accuse of facilitating
Chinese government espionage,
will pay “special awards for strug-
gles,” internal communications
show, even as it faces a $10 billion
hit this year as a result of Wash-
ington’s actions.
“The company has decided to
hand out a ‘Special Award for
Struggles’ to all employees, who
have made contributions to our
coping with the U.S. sanctions,”
Zheng Liangcai, of Huawei’s hu-
man resources management de-
partment, wrote to staff this week
in an internal memo reviewed by
The Washington Post.
With a few exceptions for poor
performance or violating compa-
ny rules, employees will receive
double their October base salary,
to be paid by the end of Novem-
ber, Zheng said in the memo,
which was sent Nov. 11, an auspi-
cious day known as “Double 11” in
China. There will be a minimum
additional payment of $2,850.
Nov. 11 is China’s answer to
Black Friday and Cyber Monday,
when hundreds of millions of
consumers flock to Taobao, an

e-commerce site owned by Aliba- ba. Buyers spent a record $38.4 billion on Monday, an out- come that would have pleased the Chinese government as the econ- omy slows. Despite the payout, one Hua- wei employee, Yang Hui, said that money wasn’t the point. “There is sentiment attached to our work,” he said in the company memo. “Under the current circumstanc- es, bonuses are not the priority. The priority is to fight to the end.” Details of the extra payments were first reported by the South China Morning Post. In addition, the company has earmarked $285 million in bonuses for employees who have helped with “business continu- ity” this year. Local media reported that this applies to staff who have helped the Shenzhen-based company build alternative sup- ply chains as President Trump has sought to cut off Huawei’s access to American-made compo-

nents. This applies especially to Hua- wei’s Harmony OS operating system, developed as an alternative to Google’s Android, and to Kun- peng chips, the microprocessors that Huawei has made to replace American-built semiconductors. Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunica- tions equipment, has come under extreme pressure from the Trump administration, which suspects its technology could be used to spy on behalf of China’s ruling Communist Party. The company was founded in 1987 by former People’s Libera- tion Army engineer Ren Zhengfei and has grown into a corporate behemoth that exemplifies the party’s vision for the country’s future: advanced, high-tech and Chinese to the core. But its emergence has been met with growing suspicions about its links to the ruling party and whether the company might

be acting on Beijing’s behalf. Huawei and Ren have strenu- ously denied such accusations. But the Trump administration is far from convinced. In May, it banned U.S. government agencies from doing business with Huawei and has put the company and 70 of its affiliates on a security-related blacklist, blocking American manufactur- ers from selling their products to the Chinese firm. The White House has tried to convince other countries to take similar action, in particular to block Huawei from building next-generation 5G wireless net- works. But last month, Huawei said it had signed more than 60 com- mercial contracts for 5G — double the number it had secured in January — and had shipped more than 400,000 base stations used to transmit 5G. More than half the 5G contracts are in Europe. Germany’s government last month said it would not exclude any equipment makers from its 5G net- works. Huawei is not publicly listed and therefore does not have to release financial results, but every quarter, it publishes selected and unaudited numbers. Based on the latest announce- ment, last month, analysts said the company looked to be holding up relatively well and on track to fare better this year than in 2017 or 2018. In August, Ren warned the company faced a “live or die moment” because of the U.S. campaign against it and warned that Huawei might have to shed staff. [email protected]

Lyric Li contributed to this report.

Huawei will pay workers extra for U.S. ‘struggles’

Bonuses are one sign the Chinese tech giant is not succumbing to pressure

KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES Employees work on a Huawei production line in Dongguan, China. U.S. officials have accused the company of facilitating espionage.

BY AARON GREGG

Ten military families say they were stuck in mold-infested, sub- standard housing at a Maryland Army post because property managers dragged their feet when asked to fix problems and made it financially difficult for them to leave. Some of the families say they have experienced serious, long- term health problems because of the mold. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the families accused Corvias Proper- ty Management, a real estate company that has been at the center of a national scandal over privatized military housing, of 14 charges including gross negli- gence and fraud. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense did not respond to a request for comment. A Corvias spokeswoman said the company is aware of the suit, adding that it “does not reflect the significant resources, attention and rigor that has been brought to assuring quality resi- dent housing.” Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberg- er (D-Md.), whose district in- cludes the area around Fort Meade, said in a statement that his office has been in “constant contact” with high-level Army officials about the conditions at Fort Meade, adding that members of his staff have visited the post to see for themselves. “Corvias has taken some steps to improve housing conditions, but it’s clear that, after nine months, they are still unaccept- able,” Ruppersberger said, later adding: “Based on my conversa- tions with my constituents at Fort Meade, I suspect the problem is worse than we realize at this point.” The suit, filed by the law firm Covington & Burling, alleges ne- glect and mismanagement at Fort Meade, an Army installation near Baltimore that is also hous- es the National Security Agency. The lawsuit claims one family returned home from a funeral to find their townhouse flooded because the property manager left the washing machine discon- nected. Another describes being moved into a temporary townhouse to escape their previous mold-infested one, only to find urine on the toilet seat, peanut butter smeared on the stairs and more mold. Derek Buitrago, a Navy hospi- tal corpsman, lived at Fort Meade for 2^1 / 2 years with his wife, Sandy, and their two young children. Buitrago took a second job and sold his blood so he could cover the extra expenses of dealing with the mold himself, his attor- ney and his wife said. When he tried to move out because of the mold but before the lease ended, the family faced a $600 fee they couldn’t afford, the complaint alleges. Buitrago is among several plaintiffs who found it financially difficult to relocate, something exacerbated by a system some say favors profit-minded landlords over tenants. Under the terms of their leases with the government, property managers like Corvias

collect the full amount of service members’ housing allowances, making it financially impossible for some lower-income families to move off base. The problems at Fort Meade are inherited from a 1997 military privatization drive in which developers such as Corvias re- ceived long-term lease agree- ments, federal loans and other subsidies. The Defense Depart- ment privatized some military housing, assuming that private companies will be more efficient in their operations. But the lawsuit filed Tuesday is the latest disclosure to raise serious questions about whether this approach is working, as service members and their spouses draw attention to abhorrent living conditions on bases across the country. A 2018 Reuters investigation detailed how Corvias founder John Picerne collected hundreds of millions in fees and equity returns while military families languished in defunct housing. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said this week that he has “under- scored to corporate leaders at Corvias” that they need to handle maintenance requests better. “The troubling experiences of those families is not only wrong, it must be noted that they detract from both the morale and the missions of our service members,” Cardin said in a statement. “These families, which have sac- rificed so much in order to answer the call of duty anywhere in the world that they are needed, should never have to worry about the health and safety of their families on the home front.” For the Buitrago family, who now live at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the house at Fort Meade was their first after they were mar- ried. Sandy Buitrago says Corvias rarely followed through on maintenance requests even though the home had a recurring problem with water seeping in around the windows. They rented their own dehumidifiers, air purifiers and carpet cleaners to deal with the excess water, something that strained their finances, she said. “At Fort Meade a lot of the issues that we had at home be- came our responsibility,” Sandy Buitrago told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “Even when [Corvias representatives] would come out, it was difficult to get a straight answer out of them.” When a February 2019 inspec- tion found mold in the family’s bedrooms and on the furniture, a Corvias representative said no remediation was needed and rec- ommended that they shampoo their couch, the complaint alleges. The Nunez family lived at a Corvias property on Fort Meade for close to four years before they discovered rotting and moldy insulation in their attic, the lawsuit alleges. They moved out that day. [email protected]

More at washingtonpost.com/ business

Suit: Mold is a problem

in homes at Fort Meade

The Washington Post - 14.11.2019

A22 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019

BY TONY ROMM

BY ROBERT BARNES

BY ANNA FIFIELD

BY AARON GREGG

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