Following four violent terrorist attacks in three months in Great Britain, Facebook has announced plans to combat violent extremism being promoted online in the country. The announcement comes after warnings from Prime Minister Theresa May that social media giants and search engines must do more to keep the internet free of hateful ideologies.
Facebook is launching the Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI), something it has already implemented in France and Germany. According to the AFP, the OCCI “will act as a forum for charities and other nonprofit organizations to share their experiences of extremism and develop ‘best practices’ to tackle the issue, both on and offline.”
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said, “We use technology like AI (artificial intelligence) to find and remove terrorist propaganda, and we have teams of counterterrorism experts and reviewers around the world working to keep extremist content off our platform. Partnerships with others — including tech companies, civil society, researchers and governments — are also a crucial piece of the puzzle.”
Google, Twitter, and YouTube have also faced pressure to do more to stop extremist propaganda from being distributed via their websites. Earlier this year, G7 leaders called for the curbing of terrorist content on the internet.
“We know we have more to do, but through our platform, our partners and our community we will continue to learn to keep violence and extremism off Facebook,” Sandberg concluded.
In a separate announcement last week, the British government rolled out new rules to crack down on terrorist and criminal financing.
Daniel White for TechFunnel.com
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