Eric Feinberg Discusses Anticipatory Intelligence and What Marketers & Agencies Can Do About Social Media Safety…

Eric Feinberg is a leading expert on cyber information warfare and is Vice President of content moderation for the Washington, DC-based nonprofit called the Coalition for a Safer Web (CSW). There he works with former Ambassador to Morocco, Marc Ginsberg, to shed light on terrorist extremist content, hate speech, violent activity, and illegal drug sales on social media. He has provided expert analysis for media outlets around the world.

He also invented a unique cyber research tool called Ai2, for which he received a patent.  Described as an evolution of artificial intelligence or “anticipatory intelligence,” Eric’s process enables the user to observe social media posts and identify trends, hashtag sharing, and other signifiers that can help strategists better anticipate activities from bad actors, malevolent organizations, or extremist groups.

Eric Feinberg also believes that more marketers need to take actions like Unilever’s Dove and its efforts to back U.S. federal legislation to regulate social media content and addictive algorithms that affect eating disorders, anxiety, and other mental health issues in children, especially girls.

The brand’s award-winning “Toxic Influence” initiative and new video entitled “The Cost of Beauty” directly supports the Kids Online Safety Act, sponsored by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), that would create design standards, safeguards, and tools to improve kids’ overall experience online and limit their exposure to what Dove calls “toxic beauty” content.

Feinberg is particularly concerned with how platforms are enabling the sale of illegal substances, like fentanyl, or other products that are illegal to minors. The Kids Online Safety Act would allow children and parents to restrict access to personal data and set up privacy and other parental controls. Plus, platforms would also need to disclose how they use algorithms or target advertising to minors.

To learn more from Eric Feinberg about how more brands and their agencies can take an active role in creating a safer web, watch the video interview on Internationalist Marketing TV (IMTV) on YouTube by CLICKING HERE.

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In our conversation, we discuss the following:

• The Coalition for a Safer Web (CSW) is a non-profit organization working to shed light on terrorist extremist content, hate speech, violent activity, and illegal drug sales in our social media landscape.  Are its goals to inform consumers or influence legislation?  
• Your background is in advertising and marketing. How did you get involved with the Coalition for a Safer Web?
• You also invented a unique, patented cyber research tool called Ai2, which you describe as “anticipatory intelligence.”  Tell us about that…
• Didn’t The Coalition for a Safer Web also develop a framework for a “Social Media Standards Board”? Can you outline more about this and who would be involved?
• Are you also working to directly influence or guide the social media platform themselves?   
• How can marketers or their ad agencies be of help to you, or perhaps more accurately, how can The Coalition for a Safer Web help them?
• If you had a wish list of what you’d like to see happen in our expanding world of social media influence and artificial intelligence, what would it be?

To hear more from Eric Feinberg about how more brands and their agencies can take an active role in creating a safer web, listen to the podcast as part of our Trendsetters Podcast series on iHeartRadio’s Spreaker.

Eric Feinberg has worked in the advertising and marketing services industry for almost 30 years on behalf of Fortune 500 companies sponsoring major sporting and entertainment events including the National Football League. 

When he started noticing ads appearing next to his Facebook posts, pushing counterfeit NFL apparel coming from China, he began a crusade to identify and reveal counterfeit items featured in ads on social media platforms.  He started the Global Intellectual Property Enforcement Center (GIPEC), where he developed a patented machine learning tool that relies on artificial intelligence, logic, and skilled intuition to search and sift through thousands of social media posts. He has found numerous examples of hate speech, terrorist videos, as well as illicit goods and services for sale.  

His efforts were featured in a landmark report presented to Congress called The Domestic Extremist Next Door. This report created quite an impact in Washington, especially given the proven foreign hacks into U.S. communication systems which Mr. Feinberg continues to report.