Facebook and YouTube are reportedly automatically taking down videos by the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
The new practice comes as tech companies that host video and other content are being pressured by governments and others to do more to fight the spread of extremist views online.
The technology now being used by Facebook and Google-owned YouTube was originally created to help identify and remove copyrighted content, according to Reuters, which reported the news, citing unnamed sources. The tech helps catch content previously identified as unacceptable, according to the report.
The companies would not confirm to Reuters that they re using the new system.
There s no upside in these companies talking about it, said Matthew Prince, chief executive of content distribution company CloudFlare, according to Reuters. Why would they brag about censorship?
On the other hand, tech companies are in an unenviable position — their popularity has helped the rise of hate speech and other extremist views online. Their efforts to fight that might have some fans.
As of February, Twitter said it had suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening of promoting terrorism. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg once suggested like attacks to combat ISIS on the social network, but the company also beefed up its efforts to monitor hate speech.
Earlier this month, the father of a California woman killed in the Paris terrorist attacks in November sued Facebook, Twitter and Google. Reynaldo Gonzales accuses the companies of providing material support to extremists. A similar lawsuit was filed earlier this year against Twitter by the family of a man killed in a terrorist attack in Jordan.
The Obama administration has asked the tech industry for help in combating terrorism online. And groups such as the Counter Extremism Project has urged the big tech companies to adopt its proposed plan to block extremist content — the hashing technology it described last week sounds similar to the tech that Reuters reports Facebook and YouTube are supposedly using.
Photo by Associated Press
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