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Platforms like Alphabet's YouTube and Meta Platforms' Facebook
have come under fire for years from critics who say the
companies have allowed hate speech, lies and violent rhetoric to
flourish on their services.
U.S. President Joe Biden earlier on Thursday called on Americans
to combat racism and extremism during a summit at the White
House that gathered experts and survivors and included
bipartisan local leaders.
YouTube said it will expand its policies on violent extremism to
remove content that glorifies violent acts, even if the creators
of the videos are not related to a terrorist organization.
The video streaming site already prohibits violent incitement,
but in at least some cases has not applied existing policies to
videos promoting militia groups involved with the Jan. 6
storming of the U.S. Capitol.
A report by the Tech Transparency Project in May found 435
pro-militia videos on YouTube, including 85 posted since the
Jan. 6 attack. Some of the videos gave training advice, like how
to carry out guerilla-style ambushes.
YouTube spokesman Jack Malon declined to say whether the service
would change its approach to that content under the new policy,
but said the update enables it to go further with enforcement
than it had previously.
YouTube also said it will launch a media literacy campaign to
teach younger users how to spot the manipulation tactics that
are used to spread misinformation.
Microsoft said it will make a basic and more affordable version
of its artificial intelligence and machine learning tools
available to schools and smaller organizations in order to help
them detect and prevent violence.
Facebook owner Meta announced it will partner with researchers
from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies' Center
on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism.
Last year, lawmakers grilled the chief executives of Alphabet
and Facebook, as well as Twitter Inc, on whether their companies
bore some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas and Katie Paul in Palo Alto;
editing by Richard Pullin)
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