Facebook to Assign Users a Reputation Score From Zero to 1

Facebook has started assigning a “reputation score” for users in an effort to measure user credibility and to “help identify malicious actors”, The Washington Post reports. The scores will measure the trustworthiness of a user on a scale between zero and one, and the company did not elaborate what criteria it will use to determine a user’s score. Tessa Lyons, product manager at Facebook, told the newspaper that the system was developed to help combat fake news from being disseminated on the social network. She said the “reputation score” was just “one measurement among thousands” that’s being used to assess users. While Facebook has traditionally relied on user reports to flag false and inappropriate content, Lyons said she’s seen many reports target specific publishers or articles that users simply disagree with.

It is unclear what other criteria Facebook measures to determine a user’s score, whether all users have a score and in what ways the scores are used.

But one expert said that Facebook’s use of an “automated and opaque” scoring system raised particular concerns.

“It’s unsurprising that Facebook would want to assess the credibility of its users, considering how some of them are highly suspicious, gullible or out to deliberately misinform others,” said Dr Bernie Hogan, from the Oxford Internet Institute.

“But consider the analogy of one’s credit score.

“You can check your credit score for free in many countries – by contrast, Facebook’s trustworthiness is unregulated and we have no way to know either what our score is or how to dispute it.

“Facebook is not a neutral actor and despite any diplomatic press materials to the contrary, it is intent on managing a population for profit.”

Civil rights campaigners have also been critical.

“This is yet another example of Facebook using people’s data in ways they would not expect their data to be used, which further undermines people’s trust in Facebook,” said Ailidh Callander, a solicitor at Privacy International.

“Facebook simply must learn some hard lessons, and start being transparent and accountable about how they use people’s data to profile and take decisions.”

It is not clear if the scoring system is applied to EU citizens.

But Facebook needs to abide by the recently introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“Under new data protection laws, organisations providing services to people in the UK and the EU must be transparent with customers about how personal information is used and what is held about them,” said a spokeswoman for the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office.

“This would include the way data is processed behind the scenes, how they are profiled and the way algorithms work to drive that processing.”