Social media behemoths set up group to fight terrorist content and propaganda

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Published: 1:12am, 27 Jun 2017Updated: 1:12am, 27 Jun 2017

Social media giants Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft said on Monday they were forming a global working group to combine their efforts to remove terrorist content from their platforms.

Responding to pressure from governments in Europe and the United States after a spate of militant attacks, the companies said they will share technical solutions for removing terrorist content, commission research to inform their counter-speech efforts and work more with counter-terrorism experts.

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism “will formalise and structure existing and future areas of collaboration between our companies and foster cooperation with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU and the UN,” the companies said in a statement.

The move comes on the heels of last week’s call from European heads of state for tech firms to establish an industry forum and develop new technology and tools to improve the automatic detection and removal of extremist content.

A man fixes a paper between other messages against an attack on a wall near the London Bridge in London. Social media companies are banding together to help stamp out extremist content on their sites. Photo: AP

The political pressure on the companies has raised the prospect of new legislation at EU level, but so far only Germany has proposed a law fining social media networks up to 50 million euros (US$56 million) if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly. The lower house of the German parliament is expected to vote on the law this week.