Web giants YouTube , Facebook , Twitter and Microsoft will step up efforts to remove extremist content from their websites by creating a common database.
The companies will share ‘hashes’ – unique digital fingerprints they automatically assign to videos or photos – of extremist content they have removed from their websites to enable their peers to identify the same content on their platforms.
“We hope this collaboration will lead to greater efficiency as we continue to enforce our policies to help curb the pressing global issue of terrorist content online,” the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
-Yahoo! News
Slippery slope it is when we do not have clear definitions of "terrrorist propoganda". Leaving the tech companies to define it is just as bad as having a bank write the rules in Dodd-Frank... oh wait, never mind- SK
Social Media Giants Create Database to Silence ‘Terrorist Propaganda'
via antiwar | According to a new statement by Facebook, they have joined with YouTube, Microsoft, and Twitter to create a shared database of “terrorist content” which they can all jointly use to identify further attempts to post such banned content.
The database will create hashes of videos and images that they’ve already decided are related to terrorism, and then will allow them to single out any further content matching those hatches. Facebook says this will allow them to more quickly remove such content.
The move is an attempt to react to US government demands to “do something” against terrorist propaganda, with the companies apparently hoping that the voluntary crackdown will be enough to stave off any formal government efforts to regulate them.
It’s unclear exactly what the scope of this program is going to end up being, and how broadly defined “terrorist propaganda” will be. Company offiicals are downplaying concerns of censorship, however, insisting that they have to act quickly to take such content down so no one sees it.
Read more by Soren K.Group