.
Social media companies continue to pull wool over the eyes of the American people pledging, but failing, to go the extra mile to remove extremist content from their platforms. Despite more terror attacks and promises to do better, Silicon Valley refuses to adopt a zero-tolerance policy against terrorist “how to” videos and incitement to terror. Worse, terrorists are infiltrating to other social media platforms under the very nose of Silicon Valley.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April, he assured Congress Facebook is aggressively targeting extremist content—taking down 99% (1.9 million pieces of Al Qaeda and ISIS content) before any third-party flags it for Facebook. That is a boast that fails to meet the smell test.
A 90-page report just released by the Counter Extremist Project (a NY-based NGO dedicated to countering social media terrorism and extremism) entitled “Spiders of the Caliphate,” highlights how ISIS has hijacked Facebook Live to host recruitment meetings and upload links to banned Jihadi content. Worse, according to CEP’s analysis, Facebook’s own algorithmically-powered “recommended friends” feature is helping connect radical Islamic groups across the globe. The physical destruction of the ISIS caliphate may have reduced ISIS social media operations but it has not killed it.
Even if Facebook may have upped its game against on line terror Google is still sleep walking past the terror graveyard.
Google’s “Google+” “Google Drive”, and “Google Photo” platforms have, according to Tom Galvin of the Citizens Digital Alliance (CDA)—an industry watchdog—become “abandoned warehouses where ISIS comes to work.” CEP has tracked how ISIS has instructed its on-line followers, who were hounded from some social media platforms to migrate to these on line safe havens—to create online communities to incite and inspire violence. These new terrorist communities are hiding in plain sight even when Google’s executives acknowledge this content violates Google’s terms of services. According to CEP’s own researchers, extremists use Google Drive and Google Photos to upload propaganda videos, then distribute their links to encrypted APPs, such as Telegram.
In late April, CEP identified two pieces of ISIS propaganda uploaded to Google Drive and four ISIS videos uploaded to Google Photos. Even after Google consumers flagged this ISIS content for removal by Google nine months ago.
The perennial culprit hosting most of the notorious extremist content on line remains Google’s video platform, YouTube.
YouTube’s management has manifested a singular contempt for public safety and disregard for outcries demanding concerted action against YouTube’s continuing harboring of extremist content. On any given day there are over 300,000 videos on YouTube providing step-by-step instructions how to construct bombs—pipe bombs, pressure-cooker bombs, and pocket bombs. Several YouTube “how to make a bomb” videos were found on the laptop of Sante Fe High School shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
CEP has repeatedly warned YouTube, to no avail, that an ISIS video with English subtitles released in November 2016 keeps getting uploaded by ISIS sympathizers offering step-by-step instructions for building a home-made anti-personnel bomb.
British police revealed that that very video, re-uploaded dozens of times after being taken down, was used by Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi to help construct the bomb that killed 22 people and wounded 250 others. CEP has repeatedly offered free of charge to YouTube’s management access to its CEP’s proprietary “eGLYPH” software developed to expedite and prevent uploading terrorist content. YouTube’s CEO has, without any plausible explanation, brushed the offers aside.
Moreover, YouTube continues to provide virtual mosques for radical Islamic preachers who have embraced the theology of jihad. Incitement to terror sermons abound on YouTube, including videos of lectures by U.S.-based preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril, who is notorious for his inciting would-be western jihadists to join ISIS in Syria.
As criticism of their failures has mounted, social media companies formed The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)—a partnership of tech companies led by Facebook, Google and Twitter—to expedite the identification and removal of extremist content which promotes terror. However, according to CEP, the true substance of GIFCT’S programs and extent of its progress remain a mystery, and so far, resembles a Potemkin Village. Since GIFCT’s formation in June 2017, there is still no evidence that GIFCT has brought any systematic industry change or triggered any meaningful multi-platform in the fight against the proliferation of extremist content online.
The bottom line is that there is too much terrorist content online, finding haven online, and continuing to reappear even when it is removed.
The American people deserve better. What should be done?
First, Silicon Valley needs to launch a technology “moonshot” to outfox terrorists and would-be terrorists instead of promising to do better, whenever. There are too many gaps and too many alibis about the availability and deployment of new software to quickly and accurately identify and remove extremist content.
Second, pending new software breakthroughs, social media platforms need to deploy the same software against terror content with the same legal obligation compelled to remove child pornography and sex trafficking. Why haven’t they? Vague promises of deploying artificial intelligence are clearly insufficient.
Finally, Congress needs to get tougher on Silicon Valley, demanding compliance with their consumer terms of service or risk being held liable for extremist content under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 which currently exempts them from content liability for on line extremism.
About the author: Ambassador Marc Ginsberg is a Senior Global Adviser to the Counter Extremism Project.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
a global affairs media network
A Reality Check on #Bigtech’s Pledge to Combat Online Terror
June 21, 2018
Social media companies continue to pull wool over the eyes of the American people pledging, but failing, to go the extra mile to remove extremist content from their platforms. Despite more terror attacks and promises to do better, Silicon Valley refuses to adopt a zero-tolerance policy against terrorist “how to” videos and incitement to terror. Worse, terrorists are infiltrating to other social media platforms under the very nose of Silicon Valley.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April, he assured Congress Facebook is aggressively targeting extremist content—taking down 99% (1.9 million pieces of Al Qaeda and ISIS content) before any third-party flags it for Facebook. That is a boast that fails to meet the smell test.
A 90-page report just released by the Counter Extremist Project (a NY-based NGO dedicated to countering social media terrorism and extremism) entitled “Spiders of the Caliphate,” highlights how ISIS has hijacked Facebook Live to host recruitment meetings and upload links to banned Jihadi content. Worse, according to CEP’s analysis, Facebook’s own algorithmically-powered “recommended friends” feature is helping connect radical Islamic groups across the globe. The physical destruction of the ISIS caliphate may have reduced ISIS social media operations but it has not killed it.
Even if Facebook may have upped its game against on line terror Google is still sleep walking past the terror graveyard.
Google’s “Google+” “Google Drive”, and “Google Photo” platforms have, according to Tom Galvin of the Citizens Digital Alliance (CDA)—an industry watchdog—become “abandoned warehouses where ISIS comes to work.” CEP has tracked how ISIS has instructed its on-line followers, who were hounded from some social media platforms to migrate to these on line safe havens—to create online communities to incite and inspire violence. These new terrorist communities are hiding in plain sight even when Google’s executives acknowledge this content violates Google’s terms of services. According to CEP’s own researchers, extremists use Google Drive and Google Photos to upload propaganda videos, then distribute their links to encrypted APPs, such as Telegram.
In late April, CEP identified two pieces of ISIS propaganda uploaded to Google Drive and four ISIS videos uploaded to Google Photos. Even after Google consumers flagged this ISIS content for removal by Google nine months ago.
The perennial culprit hosting most of the notorious extremist content on line remains Google’s video platform, YouTube.
YouTube’s management has manifested a singular contempt for public safety and disregard for outcries demanding concerted action against YouTube’s continuing harboring of extremist content. On any given day there are over 300,000 videos on YouTube providing step-by-step instructions how to construct bombs—pipe bombs, pressure-cooker bombs, and pocket bombs. Several YouTube “how to make a bomb” videos were found on the laptop of Sante Fe High School shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis.
CEP has repeatedly warned YouTube, to no avail, that an ISIS video with English subtitles released in November 2016 keeps getting uploaded by ISIS sympathizers offering step-by-step instructions for building a home-made anti-personnel bomb.
British police revealed that that very video, re-uploaded dozens of times after being taken down, was used by Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi to help construct the bomb that killed 22 people and wounded 250 others. CEP has repeatedly offered free of charge to YouTube’s management access to its CEP’s proprietary “eGLYPH” software developed to expedite and prevent uploading terrorist content. YouTube’s CEO has, without any plausible explanation, brushed the offers aside.
Moreover, YouTube continues to provide virtual mosques for radical Islamic preachers who have embraced the theology of jihad. Incitement to terror sermons abound on YouTube, including videos of lectures by U.S.-based preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril, who is notorious for his inciting would-be western jihadists to join ISIS in Syria.
As criticism of their failures has mounted, social media companies formed The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)—a partnership of tech companies led by Facebook, Google and Twitter—to expedite the identification and removal of extremist content which promotes terror. However, according to CEP, the true substance of GIFCT’S programs and extent of its progress remain a mystery, and so far, resembles a Potemkin Village. Since GIFCT’s formation in June 2017, there is still no evidence that GIFCT has brought any systematic industry change or triggered any meaningful multi-platform in the fight against the proliferation of extremist content online.
The bottom line is that there is too much terrorist content online, finding haven online, and continuing to reappear even when it is removed.
The American people deserve better. What should be done?
First, Silicon Valley needs to launch a technology “moonshot” to outfox terrorists and would-be terrorists instead of promising to do better, whenever. There are too many gaps and too many alibis about the availability and deployment of new software to quickly and accurately identify and remove extremist content.
Second, pending new software breakthroughs, social media platforms need to deploy the same software against terror content with the same legal obligation compelled to remove child pornography and sex trafficking. Why haven’t they? Vague promises of deploying artificial intelligence are clearly insufficient.
Finally, Congress needs to get tougher on Silicon Valley, demanding compliance with their consumer terms of service or risk being held liable for extremist content under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 which currently exempts them from content liability for on line extremism.
About the author: Ambassador Marc Ginsberg is a Senior Global Adviser to the Counter Extremism Project.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
