In the aftermath of a number of terror attacks in the UK, Google has made a concerted effort to reassure the public that they are committed to fighting terrorism.
Google’s General Counsel Ken Walker wrote an editorial in the Financial Times this weekend to reveal the company’s increased efforts in this domain; namely a series of targeted policies and practices focusing on terrorism-related videos on sites like Youtube. Walker outlined 4 new steps that Google are committing to, including faster detection of terrorist content using advanced machine learning, employment of 50 more expert NGOs in order to combat dangerous content, tougher regulation of videos that do not automatically violate security policy with a ban on comments and advertisement, and a hard push to counteract terrorist recruitment by redirecting viewers to anti-terrorist content.
This is no easy task, however, a company such as Google, with a share of almost 95% in the search engine market, has a major responsibility to put all technological efforts towards making the Internet a safe place for all users. It’s a shame that it took threats from law-makers for them to recognise this responsibility.