Internet giants will create a common database to combat extremism


Internet giants will create a common database to combat extremism



YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft will share with other platforms the digital identifications of videos or photos of extremist content removed from their websites



The Internet giants YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft will redouble their efforts to eliminate extremist content from their platforms by creating a common database. The companies will share the "hashes" - unique digital identifications that automatically assign videos or photographs - of extremist content that they have removed from their websites to allow others to identify the same content on their platforms.

"We hope that this collaboration will lead to greater efficiency while we continue to apply our policies to help curb the urgent global issue of terrorist content on the Internet," they said in a joint statement published on Tuesday.

Companies in the technology sector have long resisted external intervention in the way their sites should be controlled, but they have faced increasing pressure from Western governments to do more to suppress extremist content after a series of terrorist attacks.

Thousands of suspended accounts

YouTube and Facebook have started using "hashes" to automatically remove this type of content. However, many providers have so far mainly relied on users to identify content that violates the terms of service. The marked material is then reviewed individually by editors who delete the publications that result in violating the terms of service.

Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts between February and August of this year and has expanded the teams that review the information of extremist content. Each company will decide which "hashes" of images and videos include in the database and the content that matches will not be automatically deleted, they have explained. The database will be operational at the beginning of 2017 and more companies could join the initiative.

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