EU, Facebook, Google, Microsoft Come Together To Tackle Online Extremism

EU Internet Forum is the latest initiative of the European Union to bring together governments, Europol and tech companies to counter terrorist content and hate speech online. The aim is to reach a joint, voluntary approach based on a public-private partnership to detect and address harmful material online.

European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos in cooperation with the Commissioner for Justice, Consumer and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, launched the EU Internet Forum on Thursday, bringing together internet giants like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, among others.

“Terrorists are abusing the internet to spread their poisonous propaganda: that needs to stop. The voluntary partnership we launch today with the internet industry comes at the right time to address this problem. We want swift results”, Avramopoulos said in a statement. “This is a new way to tackle this extremist abuse of the internet, and it will provide the platform for expert knowledge to be shared, for quick and operational conclusions to be developed, and powerful and credible voices to challenge extremist narratives."

In separate news, Manuel Valls, Prime Minister and Axelle Lemaire, Secretary of State for digital, met five major players in the Internet and social networks including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, for a working session on the fight against radicalization and terrorism, in the wake of recent terrorist attacks on Paris.

According to the press release, the internet companies and the State will cooperate to define and implement an offensive strategy that specifically targets online activities of ISIS. A follow up meeting will be held late January.