The UK government has developed an AI tool that can automatically detect and block extremist content, including ISIS propaganda. The Home Office spent £600,000 on private sector firm ASI Data Science to create the tool, which claims to be using advanced machine learning to analyze video and audio content to identify whether it\’s Daesh propaganda. The government says the tool can automatically detect 94% of Daesh propaganda with an accuracy rate of 99.995%. However, critics have raised concerns about the methodology behind the model and its potential to falsely flag and block innocent content. The Home Office is not publicly detailing the methodology behind the model, but says it will be sharing it with smaller companies to help combat the abuse of their platforms by terrorists and their supporters. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has urged industry collaboration on this issue, but has not ruled out taking legislative action if necessary.
Last summer, tech giants including Google, Facebook, and Twitter formed the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) to collaborate on engineering solutions to combat online extremism. The forum’s members agreed to share content classification techniques and effective reporting methods for users. The UK government is currently in Silicon Valley meeting with social media giants to discuss tackling terrorist content online, including getting their reactions to the home-backed tool and seeking help supporting smaller platforms in ejecting terrorist content.
A Facebook spokesperson stated that the company shares the goals of the Home Office to find and remove extremist content as quickly as possible. They added that they invest heavily in staff and technology to combat online extremism, with 99% of ISIS and Al Qaeda-related content removed found by their automated systems. The Facebook representative noted the need for strong partnerships between policymakers, counter speech experts, civil society, NGOs, and other companies to effectively fight online extremism.
A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on the matter but pointed to the company’s most recent Transparency Report which showed a significant reduction in received reports of terrorist content on their platform. The report credits this progress to the effectiveness of the company’s in-house tech tools in identifying and blocking extremist accounts and tweets.
Google has not responded to requests for comment on the matter.
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