Tech companies set up database to fight online terrorist content

Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube have announced that they are establishing a database to combat the spread of terrorist content on the Internet. In this database they share hashes of deleted content so that it can be quickly identified by others.

In a joint message let the companies know that each party itself investigates whether a particular image or video is included in the database. Content whose hashes match is not automatically removed. In this way, each company has to look at whether the content violates its own guidelines. In the future, more companies should be able to join the database.

The partnership must take place “with respect for users’ privacy and the ability to express themselves freely and securely,” the companies said. About the nature of the terrorist content, they only say that it involves “the most extreme and outrageous images and videos, which are probably banned under any directive.”

The announcement of the plans comes shortly after criticism by the EU that tech companies are not removing hate messages from their platforms quickly enough. On Monday, Eurocommissioner Věra Jourová responded to a report that only 40 percent of such messages are deleted within the previously agreed 24-hour deadline.