WASHINGTON — Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube are joining forces to more quickly identify the worst terrorist propaganda and prevent it from spreading online.
The new program would create a database of unique digital “fingerprints” to help automatically identify videos or images the companies could remove.
The move by the technology companies is expected to begin in early 2017. It aims to assuage government concerns — and derail proposed new federal legislation — over social media content that’s seen as increasingly driving terrorist recruitment and radicalization, while also balancing free-speech issues.
Under the new partnership, the companies promised to share among themselves fingerprints of “the most extreme and egregious terrorist images and videos” they’ve removed from their services, which is likely content that would violate all their policies.
