Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 28-11-2017

Social media company Facebook says it will expand its pattern recognition software to other countries after successful tests in the United States to detect users with suicidal intent.

The world’s largest social media network on Monday said it began testing the software in the US in March when the company started scanning the text of Facebook posts and comments for phrases that could be signals of an impending suicide.

Reuters reports Facebook has not disclosed many technical details of the program, but the company says its software searches for certain phrases that could be clues, such as the questions “Are you ok?” and “Can I help?”

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 helpline.

Facebook’s vice president for product management Guy Rosen says during the past month first responders checked on people more than 100 times after the company’s software detected suicidal intent.

“Speed really matters. We have to get help to people in real time.”

In May Facebook said it would hire 3,000 more people to monitor videos and other content.

Other tech firms have also tried to prevent suicides. Google’s search engine displays the phone number for a suicide hotline in response to certain searches.

Twitter: @FaizelPatel143