U.S. Tech Firms to Join Forces on Take Down of Terror Content

By Natalia Drozdiak 

BRUSSELS -- Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube, Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Microsoft Inc. on Monday announced they would form a shared database of identifiers of online terror images and videos in a bid to speed up the takedown of content that has helped terror cells recruit followers and spread radical ideas on the Web.

"There is no place for content that promotes terrorism on our hosted consumer services," Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube said in a joint statement. "We hope this collaboration will lead to greater efficiency as we continue to enforce our policies."

In the statement, the four U.S. tech giants said they agreed to assign the violent material they take down all around the world a so-called hash, which maps out an image or a video's unique characteristics in code that computers can read. The companies will then share that hash with each other so the other firms can more rapidly determine whether they too need to remove that information from their platforms.

Internet companies have faced pressure from authorities to speed up the takedown of terrorist content, such as Islamic State propaganda videos, from their websites. Authorities in Europe have been particularly vocal after terror groups and lone wolves launched a number of deadly terror attacks on the continent in recent months.

The companies said they would begin sharing the identifiers early next year to first allow time to implement some of the technical details.

In the statement, the companies clarified that the content flagged by another firm wouldn't automatically be taken down on all four platforms. The companies would still check whether content flagged by another company violates their own respective policies before taking the information down from their platforms.

But the companies are typically aligned on what is understood to be the most violent content that needs to be expunged from internet websites, they said.

The companies said the agreement comes out of regular meetings with European Union officials as part of what is called the EU Internet Forum, which was formed to devise strategies around preventing terrorists from using the companies' platforms to promote their violent agendas. The companies' announcement comes ahead of an EU Internet Forum meeting later this week.

The companies said they would be open to including other internet companies as part of the database project.

Earlier this year, the same four companies agreed with the EU to a code of conduct on the internet, pledging to remove from their websites information visible in Europe that incites hatred or acts of terror, within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 05, 2016 18:14 ET (23:14 GMT)

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