European leaders will warn the world’s biggest technology companies
that they face fines unless they meet a target of removing terrorist content
from the Internet within two hours of it appearing.
At a meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations annual
meeting, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni will address executives from companies
including Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp and Twitter Inc.
Their goal is to persuade these tech giants that stopping terrorists
from using their platforms should be a priority and the focus for innovation.
May’s office pointed to Twitter’s success in this area. The company said that
automated tools had helped it to suspend nearly 300,000 accounts linked to
terrorism so far this year.
“Terrorist groups are aware that links to their propaganda are being
removed more quickly, and are placing a greater emphasis on disseminating
content at speed in order to stay ahead,” May will tell the meeting, according
to her office. “Industry needs to go further and faster in automating the
detection and removal of terrorist content online, and developing technological
solutions which prevent it being uploaded in the first place.”
Instructions to make bombs are usually hosted on smaller platforms,
which often lack the tools to identify and remove content.
May’s government is looking at making Internet companies legally liable
if they don’t take terrorist material down quickly. The first two hours after
something is put online are considered crucial, as this is when most of the
material is downloaded.
Islamic State has developed sophisticated marketing techniques to
spread its propaganda before it can be identified and removed. May will say she
wants Internet companies to identify material as it’s being uploaded and stop
it appearing at all.
Ahead of the meeting, May will address the UN, talking about the
effects of the terrorism that she’s seen this year in Britain.
“As prime minister, I have visited too many
hospitals and seen too many innocent people murdered in my country,” she’ll
say, according to her office. “And I say enough is enough. As the threat from
terrorists evolves, so must our cooperation.” — Bloomberg
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