Social Networking Site Nextdoor Blocks Racial Profiling From Posts Online

Social Networking Site Nextdoor Blocks Racial Profiling From Posts Online

The CEO of a networking site for neighborhoods is moving to block all racial profiling from the platform reports NPR News:

Nextdoor, a social network, has decided to block users from publishing certain posts, specifically when they appear to be racial profiling.

Talking about race and racial profiling does not come naturally to Nirav Tolia, the CEO of Nextdoor. And yet, he’s doing it anyway.

“What someone considers to be racist is something that is, unfortunately in many cases, in the eye of the beholder,” he says. “Why do some people like Trump and some people think that he’s Satan?”

The company is confronting a tough problem: How do you stop an activity when people can’t even agree on how to define it? Jaywalking and speeding are easy. Racial profiling does not have a universally accepted definition, as criminology experts note.

In the face of public criticism by users who felt the site was permitting racism and fear mongering, Nextdoor decided to create a working definition that is relatively broad: anything that allows a person to stereotype an entire race. And throughout this summer, in a move that’s highly unusual for a tech company, Tolia and his engineers have been testing ways to put a stop to it online.

The CEO uses this example on how race plays a role in profiling…

People engage in racial profiling “often not on purpose,” Tolia says. It’s implicit bias. For example, he says, a user might think: “If I look out my window, and I see someone breaking into a car, and the only thing I see is that they’re dark-skinned, why can’t I post [it]? That’s all I see.”

The problem with that post — “a dark-skinned man is breaking into a car” — is that, while the activity sounds like a crime, the description of the alleged perpetrator lacks any useful detail, like what he was wearing, his sneakers, his hairstyle or height.

“Because that message goes out to the entire neighborhood, where presumably many of the neighbors reading the post are dark-skinned, that would be considered racial profiling,” Tolia explains.

Nextdoor was no stranger to such posts. The end effect, he says, was more hurtful than helpful, generating animosity among neighbors, rather than useful tips for law enforcement.

Discuss.