14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Twitter recently announced a new partnership that would lead to the creation of a shared database of content flagged as online terrorism, as the companies are trying to combat a trend that’s growing at a fast pace these days.
In a joint press release, the four tech giants announced that they would all contribute to the creation of the database containing photos and videos used to recruit people into terrorism. Hashes will be added by any of the involved companies and will become available to everyone else immediately.
More companies to be added in the long term
However, content that’s flagged as part of this collaboration is not automatically removed, but each company can review it to decide whether it can indeed be labeled as infringing, thus contributing to a growing database of photos and videos that truly serves its purpose.
“Each company will independently determine what image and video hashes to contribute to the shared database. No personally identifiable information will be shared, and matching content will not be automatically removed,” the press release, which you can read in full at the end of the article, states.
“Each company will continue to apply its own policies and definitions of terrorist content when deciding whether to remove content when a match to a shared hash is found. And each company will continue to apply its practice of transparency and review for any government requests, as well as retain its own appeal process for removal decisions and grievances.”
The same four companies have been asked by the European Commission to tackle the issue of hate speech in a more efficient way, after they all signed a code of conduct in May but failed to act accordingly.
EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova warned that should the technology giants fail to comply with these requirements, the EU could adopt laws that would regulate how exactly firms need to act in the case of online hate speech and terrorist content.
The joint press release published today also reveals that more companies will be included in the alliance in the coming months and years. All four guarantee that user privacy would be fully protected and no personal information would be shared as part of the database.