Facebook will extend its pattern recognition software to other countries after successful tests in the US to detect users with suicidal intent, reported Reuters.
The report said that the social media network firm began testing the software in the United States in March, when the company started scanning the text of Facebook posts and comments for phrases that could be signals of a potential suicide.
Facebook has not disclosed many technical details of the program, but the company said its software searches for certain phrases that could be clues, such as the questions “Are you ok?” and “Can I help?”, according to Reuters report.
If the software detects a potential suicide, it alerts a team of Facebook workers who specialise in handling such reports. The system suggests resources to the user or to friends of the person such as a telephone help line. Facebook workers sometimes call local authorities to intervene, said Reuters.
Facebook’s vice president for product management Guy Rosen said the company was beginning to roll out the software outside the United States because the tests have been successful. During the last month, first responders have checked on people more than 100 times after the company’s software detected suicidal intent, he said.
The firm said it tries to have specialist employees available at any hour to call authorities in local languages. “Speed really matters. We have to get help to people in real time,” Rosen said.
Last year, when the social media network launched live video broadcasting, videos proliferated of violent acts including suicides and murders, presenting a threat to the company’s image. In May Facebook said it would hire 3,000 more people to monitor videos and other content, reported Reuters.
Rosen did not name the countries where Facebook was deploying the software, but he said it would eventually be used worldwide except in the European Union due to sensitivities, which he declined to discuss, said the Reuters report.
