Xbox boss says ‘there’s no silver bullet’ to solving online abuse – but outlines commitment to safety
The corporate vice president of Xbox has told Sky News “there’s no silver bullet” to protect women and minority groups on the internet who experience online harassment and abuse.
Dave McCarthy said it takes just one toxic experience on a platform and “your trust in an online space dissipates immediately, as it should”.
In an interview outlining Microsoft Xbox’s renewed commitment to online safety, Mr McCarthy told Sky News of the tools used by the gaming behemoth to keep children and others safe on its platform.
“This is an ongoing thing that we have to plug away at and we have those tools in place and hold ourselves accountable,” he said.
One of those measures, he says, is the deployment of artificial intelligence, which sifts through billions of messages and images on Xbox’s platform identifying abusive behaviour.
“There are AI solutions deployed in the detection of things like bot accounts that are causing issues,” he said.
Mr McCarthy said Xbox uses various AI learning models, naming ChatGPT as an example of such a machine-based learning function.
The AI finds abusive bot accounts by identifying patterns of certain behaviour.
But Mr McCarthy stressed the need to “augment” that artificial intelligence with human intelligence as well.
“While those detection algorithms allow us to find the needles in the haystack at scale, we still need humans to validate that those things are going on,” he said.
He said Xbox employ language specialists to work alongside their AI, to identify the latest forms of language and euphemisms used to harass or spread hate online.
Corporate vice president of Xbox, Dave McCarthy
Importance of appeals process
Asked why players on the Xbox platform should feel confident their concerns will be heard and acted upon, Mr McCarthy raised the appeals procedure.
“This is going to sound strange, but having an appeals process is actually a strong thing for us, because it shows people that we are listening and we do take multiple looks at things and they do have a course of action,” he said.
“This is a journey that’s never over. We’ve made advances in areas like accessibility and sustainability but it’s the tip of the iceberg in some respects. We’re never done in this space.”
Under amendments to the hotly debated Online Safety Bill, tech bosses could face up to two years in jail for failing to protect children online.
The bill would force managers of platforms hosting user-generated content, to take “proportionate measures” to protect children from harmful material.
Steps to protect children
Mr McCarthy highlighted steps Xbox were taking to protect children, including using its popular Minecraft franchise to educate children on areas such as data protection.
The educational Minecraft Privacy Prodigy programme teaches children how to protect their data and stay safe online.
The initiative follows calls from Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, on Sky’s Sophie Ridge on Sunday, for Britons to delete the video app popular with children, TikTok, from their phones to prevent alleged Chinese intelligence gathering.
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The Xbox boss told Sky News that Microsoft was working closely with politicians in the US and UK on legislative safety reforms.
“I had the good pleasure last fall of coming out for Westminster Games Week, which is a very heartening discussion that the industry has with the government.
“My personal experience of regulatory bodies, including the UK, is that they’re very welcoming to the dialogue.”
He called for “great legislation” to make sure big tech reaches the standards it should be meeting.
The Online Safety Bill is currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords, after MPs gave it their approval in January.
World
Boy, 8, killed in US Catholic school shooting named – as victim’s father brands attacker ‘a coward’
An eight-year-old boy killed in the US Catholic school shooting has been named – as his father branded the attacker a “coward”.
Fletcher Merkel was one of two children killed during mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Eighteen other people were injured, including children aged between six and 15 and three adults in their 80s.
Police said Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman, opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school’s church as children sat in pews.
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New details released of US school shooting
Dad says ‘Fletcher loved his family’
In a statement reported by Sky’s US partner network NBC News, Fletcher’s father Jesse Merkel blamed the “coward” killer for why the boy’s family can’t “hold him, talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming”.
He added: “Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking, and any sports that he was allowed to play.
“While the hole in our hearts and lives will never be filled, I hope that in time, our family can find healing.”
Mr Merkel said he prayed the family of the 10-year-old victim – who has not been identified – would also find peace.
“I’ve heard many stories accounting the swift and heroic actions of children and adults alike from inside the church,” he added.
“Without these people and their selfless actions, this could have been a tragedy of many magnitudes more. For these people, I am thankful.”
Families and loved ones reunite at the scene after the shooting. Pic: Reuters
Mayor calls for assault weapon ban
It comes after Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called for a statewide and federal ban on assault weapons, a day after the deadly school shooting.
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Minneapolis mayor urges assault weapons ban
“Thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it. It’s on all of us to see this through,” the mayor said at a news conference. “We need a statewide and a federal ban on assault weapons.
“We need a statewide and a federal ban on high-capacity magazines. There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload.
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle gear. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”
Meanwhile, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara gave an update on the investigation, saying the suspect had fired 116 rifle rounds into the church.
“It is very clear that this shooter had the intention to terrorise those innocent children,” he added, before saying the killer “fantasised” about the plans of other mass shooting attackers and wanted to “obtain notoriety”.
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Thomas Klemond, interim CEO of Minneapolis’s main trauma hospital Hennepin Healthcare, said at an earlier news conference that the hospital was treating nine patients injured in the shooting.
One child at the hospital was in a critical condition, he added.
Children’s Minnesota Hospital also said that three children remain in its care as of Thursday morning.
Police have released new details about the killer in the US Catholic school shooting – including that they “idolised” mass murderers and they wanted to “watch children suffer”.
Two children, aged eight and 10, were killed during mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Eighteen other people were injured, including children aged between six and 15 and three adults in their 80s.
Police said Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman, opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school’s church as children sat in pews.
Robin Westman
Almost 120 rifle rounds fired, police chief says
In a news conference on Thursday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the attacker fired 116 rifle rounds into the church.
“It is very clear that this shooter had the intention to terrorise those innocent children,” he added.
The police chief said the killer “fantasised” about the plans of other mass shooting attackers and wanted to “obtain notoriety”.
When asked about the attacker obtaining the firearms used legally, Mr O’Hara said that they did not have a criminal history or any diagnosed mental health disorders.
While they had potentially concerning social media posts, the police chief added that there was no evidence to suggest that Westman was legally barred from purchasing a firearm.
People mourn outside the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Pic: Reuters
Suspect ‘wanted to watch children suffer’
Joe Thompson, acting US attorney for Minnesota, also said evidence recovered of the killer’s plans showed “pure indiscriminate hate” and that they “idolised some of the most notorious school shooters and mass murderers in our country’s history”.
“I won’t dignify the shooter’s words by repeating them,” Mr Thompson added. “They are horrific and vile, but in short, the shooter wanted to watch children suffer.”
Earlier, the mayor of Minneapolis called for a statewide and federal ban on assault weapons after the deadly attack, saying “thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it”.
“There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload,” he said.
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle gear. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”
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Minneapolis mayor urges assault weapons ban
Thomas Klemond, interim CEO of Minneapolis’s main trauma hospital Hennepin Healthcare, said at a news conference earlier that the hospital was treating nine patients injured in the shooting.
One child at the hospital was in a critical condition, he added.
Children’s Minnesota Hospital also said that three children remain in its care as of Thursday morning.
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In a post on Facebook, the hospital said “there are no words to describe the overwhelming pain many are feeling”, adding: “We feel that pain with you.
“To the entire Annunciation community, you have our deepest condolences. During this time of unimaginable grief and loss, we want you to know that we at Children’s Minnesota are with you.
“We will always be here to care for you. And in this moment, we hurt alongside you.”
After all those raised hopes of peace, Ukraine has been hit by the second-worst night of Russian air attacks since the war began.
So much for diplomacy, despite the Alaska summit, then the Washington DC meeting.
The Kremlin says it was aiming at military targets, but yet again, the pictures tell a very different story.
Follow latest: UK summons Putin’s ambassador
Firefighters work at the site of a burning building after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine. Pic: AP
One civilian building after another was hit, more than a dozen people were killed and British Council and EU buildings were also damaged.
So what’s going on? Why is Vladimir Putin doing it?
Because he can.
The Russian president thinks he’s winning this war, and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that he’s using diplomacy to play for time while he carries on beating down the Ukrainians will to win.
And at the moment, no one is stopping him
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At least 14 killed in Kyiv attack
Ukraine is hitting back, particularly at Russia‘s oil installations, more of them going up in thick black smoke, after being hit by long-range Ukrainian drones.
It is taking a heavy toll on Putin’s ‘Achilles heel’, but on its own, analysts don’t expect it will be enough to persuade him to end this war.
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British Council building hit in Kyiv
The West can wring its hands in condemnation.
But it’s divided between Europe that wants a ceasefire and much more severe sanctions, and President Trump, who, it seems, does not – strangely always willing to sympathise with the Russians more than Ukraine.
He’s back to blaming Ukraine for starting the war, saying earlier in the week that Kyiv should not have got into a war it had no chance of winning.
It is a grotesque perversion of history. Ukraine, of course, had no choice but to fight to defend itself when it was invaded in an act of unprovoked aggression.
Every time the US president has condemned Russia for these kinds of attacks, he has never followed through and done nothing to punish them.
Rescue workers carry an injured woman after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine. Pic: AP
More worryingly for the Ukrainians, the Russians are getting the upper hand in the drones war, taking Iranian technology and souping it up into faster-moving drones that the Ukrainians are having increasing difficulty bringing down.
They expect as many as a thousand drones a night coming their way by the winter, and many, many more innocents to die.
Next week, Putin will join Chinese and North Korean leaders in a summit in Beijing, both supporting his war in Ukraine.
(L-R) Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un. Pics: Reuters
Read more from Dominic Waghorn:
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A war that began as one man’s mad idea has, in three and a half years, metastasised into a titanic struggle between east and west, fought increasingly with machines in a dystopian evolution of war.
If President Trump is not prepared to use his power to bring this war to an end, what will another three and a half years of his presidency bring?
It is a chilling question.
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