1 . Instagram has launched (发布) a machine learning technology to its app that better identifies self-harm and suicide (自杀) content in the UK after tragic death of a 14-year-old schoolgirl Molly Russell, who viewed Instagram content connected to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide before ending her own life in November 2017.
Molly’s family later found she had been viewing content on social media, particularly pictures on Instagram, linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide, which her father, Ian Russell, believed to “help to kill her.” Ian has demanded that web companies should take more responsibility for filtering (过滤) harmful content from the Internet, which may possibly contribute to more young people’s deaths.
Concerns have been raised about self-harm and suicide content online, especially how platforms deal with such content and its impact on certain users, young people in particular. Social media platforms are now increasingly being pressured to develop technology to help remove harmful content as quickly as possible, rather than waiting for users to report it.
Now, the new tool from Instagram automatically searches for suicide-related images and words on the platform. It then makes the content less visible (可见的) in the app or, in some cases, removes it completely after 24 hours if the machine learning decides it breaks the app’s safety rules.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said, “Our technology finds posts that may include suicide or self-harm content and sends them to human reviewers to make the final decision and take the right action.” Between April and June this year, around 90 percent of such kind of harmful content on Instagram was found by its own technology before any real user reported it to the platform. “But our goal is to get that number as close as we possibly can to 100 percent,” Mosseri added. “And I hope this could in some way help avoid tragic deaths like Molly Russell’s.”
1. What does Molly’s father mean by saying “help to kill her”?| A．Someone on Instagram helped her to kill herself. |
| B．She was suffering from cyberbully on Instagram. |
| C．Content on Instagram had negative effects on her. |
| D．She didn’t get any help from social media. |
| A．Social media platforms are all taking action to remove harmful content from the Internet. |
| B．Users can report harmful content online to the platform if they see any. |
| C．All images and words that the new technology finds will be completely removed. |
| D．Instagram has already achieved their goal to find 100 percent of harmful content in its app. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Worried. |
| A．A new technology brought out by Instagram after a teenager’s death |
| B．A schoolgirl’s tragic death after viewing harmful content online |
| C．Ways to prevent young people from self-harm and suicide |
| D．How to deal with depression, self-harm and suicide content online |
