Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft, Twitter Take Further Action To Fight Terrorism

Four of the largest consumer tech companies in the world are once again joining forces to battle terrorist content. Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft, and Twitter have launched the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, though which they will share best practices with one another for eradicating extremism on their respective platforms.

The goal of the Forum is to give each participating company a chance to share the research data, technological advances, and counterterrorist efforts it has developed in order to combat the spread of groups like ISIS on the internet. In addition, a partnership with the U.N. Security Council Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (U.N. CTED) and the ICT4Peace Initiative will create a knowledge network that will help smaller companies develop their own anti-terrorist measures.

The partnership between the four tech giants builds on their previous work in this area. In May 2016, they signed an EU code of conduct through which they pledge combat hate speech on the internet. Later that year, they launched a joint database of hashes that they can use to identify and block terrorist content. YouTube also recently announced updates to its own counter-terrorist efforts, which it will now be able to share with the other members of the Forum.

According to YouTube’s blog post announcing the launch of the Forum, “further information on all of the above initiatives will be shared in due course.”