Facebook labels black men 'primates'

September 2021

Facebook's topic recommendation algorithm has been asking users watching a Daily Mail video featuring Black men whether they like to '[k]eep seeing videos about Primates.'

The company later apologised for its 'unacceptable error', said it had disabled the recommendation feature responsible for the message, and will look to ensure it does not happen again.

Operator: Meta/Facebook
Developer: Meta/Facebook
Country: USA
Sector: Technology
Purpose: Recommend topics
Technology: Topic recommendation
Issue: Bias/discrimination - race
Opacity: Governance