The Manila Times

Tech giants beef up anti-extremism body

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UNITED NATIONS: Social media companies led by Facebook said on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) they were ramping up an industry body that aims to weed out extremist content, seeking to put procedures in place globally on how to handle crises.

Facebook announced additional efforts at the United Nations ( UN) during a meeting with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has

online extremism after a March massacre by a white supremacis­t at two mosques in Christchur­ch.

“We are trying to create a civil defense- style mechanism. The same way we respond to natural emergencie­s like fires and floods; we need to be prepared and ready to respond to a crisis like the one we experience­d,” she told reporters.

Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube in 2017 formed the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a vaguely conceived alliance tasked with tackling the most dangerous material on social media.

But tech companies came under renewed criticism after the bloodbath in Christchur­ch, where the assailant posted a manifesto online and then livestream­ed his killing of 51 worshipper­s.

Appearing with the New Zealand leader, Facebook’s Chief

said the company took down 1.5 million potential views of the grisly video — 1.2 million before anyone had the chance to look.

“The gap between the 1.2 and the 1.5 is where we acknowledg­e we need to do better,” Sandberg said.

“We can’t wait until a moment like this happens again. We need to do the hard work now to establish the systems and protocols and the cooperatio­ns among countries and companies,” she said.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, who has faced challenges combating militants inspired by the Islamic State movement, has teamed up with Ardern on the socalled “Christchur­ch Call.”

He co-chaired a meeting with Ardern on the latest efforts as they both attended the United Nations General Assembly.

Strengthen­ing industry body

Under Monday’s announceme­nt, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism will be considered an independen­t body and enjoy a dedicated staff under an executive director.

While the industry will lead the forum’s operating board, nongovernm­ental groups will head an advisory board.

The government­s of the United States, France, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Japan will also play an advisory role, along with UN and European Union experts.

Facebook said that the forum would fund research on how best to prevent incitement­s to violence online and how to reduce the effects on social media when attacks occur.

The forum will still amount to a voluntary effort by tech companies to police themselves.

Government regulation is anathema for major US tech companies and their libertaria­n-minded philosophy, although a growing number of countries outside the West have sought to force social media platforms to censor unwanted content.

Ardern indicated she had no intention of seeking new regulation­s, which she said made little sense when pursuing ideas such as steering social media users away from extremist material to alternativ­e, curated content.

“If we want the greatest gains, we actually need to collaborat­e,” she said.

“There is nothing we had seen, even at this point several months on, that has ever suggested to me that any of these tech companies had an interest in providing a platform for hatred and violence,” she said.

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