YouTube has joined forces with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and others to form the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.
YouTube announced the formation of the forum in a blog post, which also gives details about the actions the forum will take.
The forum is a joint initiative between some of the largest global tech companies to help prevent the spread of terrorism through their platforms and technology. Additionally, smaller companies will be given training to help fight extremism and violent content.
This is a global initiative, building on work begun in the EU and G7 meetings in May 2017. YouTube’s post also specifies that the forum will work with several governments, including the UK government, as well as the UN.
YouTube and other popular websites have previously been criticised for their roles in enabling terrorism and the spread of radicalisation. Concerns have been raised about YouTube not taking down videos flagged for potential extremist content. Recently, alleged terrorist cells in London were thought to have been using YouTube to help plan their attacks.
YouTube has already founded what it calls a “counterspeech initiative” in the form of Creators for Change. The forum will allow the platform to share information with and learn from the counterspeech initiatives of other companies, such as Twitter. It will also attempt to develop technology to help in the fight against terrorism.
The original YouTube blog post can be found here.
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