Momentum builds on tackling violent extremism
Two years after a terrorist broadcast the killing of 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch across the internet, a group of countries and tech companies have managed to curb the spread of similar video livestreams twice.
The Christchurch Call, an international effort to tackle terrorist and violent extremism content, started by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron after the Christchurch mosque terror attacks in March, 2019, had a major win on the weekend with the United States saying it will join nearly 50 countries supporting the call.
Yesterday, officials in New Zealand, France and the US held a briefing on the effort and suggested that further countries and companies would sign on to the call in the coming days. A Christchurch Call leaders summit will be held on Saturday. The call had succeeded in producing crisis response protocols used twice since 2019 – for livestreamed attacks in Halle, Germany, and Glendale, Arizona – however the more difficult work of curbing radicalisation through tech companies’ algorithms faced hurdles.
‘‘Were something like Christchurch to happen again today . . . we have a new set of content incident protocols and crisis process response protocols in place that would kick into effect,’’ said Paul Ash, Ardern’s special representative on digital and cyber.
Ash said in addition to the two uses of the protocol – which has countries and companies work together to systematically expunge terror content from tech platforms – there had been ‘‘well over’’ 100 incidents where countries and companies had to consider a need to take action.
More evidence was required to understand how tech companies’ algorithms might promote terrorist and violent content, the officials said.
French ambassador for digital affairs Henri Verdier said people needed to ‘‘be careful with the magic word ‘algorithm’.’’
‘‘We have to face a lot of issues. Filter bubbles and echo chambers are design issues in social networks.
‘‘We have tons of algorithms everywhere, and to think about a better design we need to respect different issues.’’
‘‘We have a new set of content incident protocols.’’
Paul Ash
PM’s special representative on digital and cyber