Facebook Inc is launching a British program to train and fund local organizations to combat extremist material online, as Internet companies are trying to crack down on hate speech and violent content in their services.
Facebook, which outlined new efforts to remove extremist and terrorist content from its social media platform last week, will launch the Civilian Courage Initiative online in the UK on Friday, the company said in a statement.
The new initiative will train non-governmental organizations to help them monitor and respond to extremist content and create a dedicated support center so they can communicate directly with Facebook, the company said.
“There is no place for hate or violence on Facebook,” said Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook. “We use technology like AI to find and eliminate terrorist propaganda, and we have teams of counterterrorism experts and reviewers from around the world working to keep extremist content off our shelf.”
The British government has stepped up attacks on Silicon Valley internet companies for not acting fast enough to crack down on extremist online propaganda and to promote “safe places” where extremists can rear after a series of attacks in London and Manchester .
Facebook, Alphabet Inc Google and Twitter Inc have responded by saying they have made huge investments and employed thousands of people to reduce hate speech and violent content over the past two years. Security analysts say efforts have drastically reduced the use of these platforms for jihadist recruitment efforts, although more work is needed.
Prime Minister Theresa May has sought to enlist British public opinion to force Internet players in the United States to work more closely with the government rather than to propose new laws or policies to assert greater control over the web .
Earlier this week, May urged other leaders of the European Union at a meeting in Brussels to join it to pressure technology companies to “free terrorist material from the internet in all our languages.”
She urged Internet companies to reactively switch content removal when notified, towards greater use of automatic detection and removal tools – and, ultimately, preventing them from appearing on their platforms in the first place.
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