Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism: the new global forum to combat terrorism aims to make social media platforms “hostile” to terrorists and violent extremists.
Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube will use the forum to “share technological and operational data” on their individual efforts to combat terrorist content.
In December, at the EU Internet Forum, the four technology companies announced the creation of a joint database of maps, videos and images of terrorist propaganda that they have removed from their services.
This forum will use the database hashes and will include the best techniques that companies have implemented for content detection as well as their classification techniques using machine learning.
The Global Internet Forum team will also work to develop standardized transparency reporting methods to be used in the removal of terrorist content.
The new Forum follows Google’s admission that big tech companies need to do more to tackle the use of social platforms to spread terrorist propaganda. Facebook recently revealed how it would use an image-matching algorithm and linguistic analysis to identify and ensure that terrorist propaganda stays off its platforms.
The fight against terrorism is coming back to the fore as governments seek new regulations that would force technology companies to help law enforcement authorities deal with encrypted communications in criminal and national security investigations.
Through a joint partnership with the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate and the ICT4Peace initiative, large businesses will be able to share knowledge with small companies to help them develop the technology and processes they need to tackle terrorist and extremist content online.
The Forum will also develop best practices for countering online extremism and share knowledge from various counterterrorism initiatives, such as Alphabet's Jigsaw Redirect method, and YouTube's Creators for Change.
“The Forum we have established allows us to learn from and contribute to each other’s counter-perception efforts and discuss how to strengthen and educate civil society and individuals who may be engaged in similar work, as well as support ongoing efforts,” the companies said in a joint statement.
They also published the Center for Strategic International Studies report , highlighting the role of social media as an "accelerator" of violent extremism.
