Anti-Terrorism Upgrades Promises By Google

The presence of terrorists on the internet has long been a contentious issue for governments and tech companies. Leaders want firms like Google to stamp them into oblivion, but the matter of free speech has often gotten in the way. It seems this is no longer the case as Google has taken more and more steps to finally curb the spread of extremist ideas on its platforms.

In response to the increasing calls by world leaders, particularly the recent rhetoric from U.K. politicians that the internet has become a hotbed of cultivating extremist ideas, Google has promised to step up its efforts to suppress content related to terrorism. The company intends to identify videos or articles promoting terrorism on websites and YouTube, General Counsel Kent Walker’s op-ed at the Financial Times reads.

“While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done,” Walker’s article reads.

One of the biggest problems with tackling terrorism on the internet is the fact that it can involve extreme lengths that would start to affect free speech. Google and social media sites have been resisting the call to suppress any and all content that could be considered hateful simply because they did not want to be the arms of police states.

Unfortunately, the recent string of extremist attacks has forced these companies to finally confront the truth. One of the results of this realization is the four steps that YouTube will take in order to clamp down on terrorism-related videos, Venture Beat reports.

Aside from employing technology to easily find said videos, the company is also employing more people to screen these contents. On the other hand, it seems not all hateful rhetoric will be removed from the platform since offensive religious views or bigoted videos will merely be demonetized.

Finally, the company will work with redirecting services to make sure that only a few ISIS recruitment videos are seen. The service called Jigsaw will be instrumental in this regard.