Google is developing a free moderator for smaller websites that they can use to identify and remove terrorist material. A response to new legislation in the UK and the European Union forcing internet companies to do more to tackle illegal content.
The software was developed in collaboration with the research and development unit Jigsaw and with society Tech Against Terrorism. The initiative is supported by the United Nations to help tech companies fight and counter terrorism online.
"There are many websites that do not deal with law enforcement. Building the algorithms is an operation that requires a lot of work and resources", he has declared Yasmine Green, CEO of Jigsaw at the Financial Times. “Smaller websites don't want Isis content, but unknowingly have a huge amount of it nestled in their platforms", he added.
Internet service provider companies will be forced to remove extremist content from their platforms or alternatively face fines and other penalties under new laws such as the Digital Services Act in the EU, which entered into force in November, and the online safety bill of UK, which should become law this year.
The law has been pushed by politicians and regulators from across Europe, who argue that the groups Big Tech I am no longer able to control all online content in a massive and analytical way.
But the new regulatory regime has raised fears that the start-up smaller companies aren't equipped to match, and that lack of resources limits their ability to compete with big tech companies.
"I've noticed a big shift in the fact that leading platforms are becoming much more effective at moderating, and this pushes terrorist content and Covid fake news to other sites smaller,” Green said.
A report of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (the global internet counter-terrorism forum) 2021 estimated that for every 10.000 Facebook posts, six contain terrorist or extremist content. On smaller platforms, this figure could be as high as 5.000, or 50% of content.
Also GIFCT extension, a non-governmental organization founded by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube in 2017 supports the Jigsaw project. The NGO maintains a database of terrorist content that moderation systems can use to locate existing materials online.
On December 13th, Facebook and Meta, owners of Instagram, have launched a open source software which other platforms can use to associate terrorist content with existing images or videos in the database and highlight them for urgent removal.
Jigsaw's tool aims to take the next step in the process and help human moderators make decisions about content flagged as dangerous and illegal. Tests with two sites whose identities remain secret will begin early this year.