Meta isn’t the only tech titan developing tools to aid in the detection of terrorist content. According to the Financial Times, Google’s Jigsaw is working on a free tool to assist smaller websites in detecting and removing extremist content.
The project, developed with the assistance of the United Nations-supported Tech Against Terrorism initiative, makes it easier for moderator teams to deal with potentially illegal content. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (founded by Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter) is assisting with the effort by providing a cross-service database of terrorist items. The code will be tested by two unnamed sites later this year. Google’s tool, like Meta’s open source utility, is intended to help sites that cannot afford to develop AI detection algorithms or hire a large moderation staff. This could be crucial as the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the United Kingdom’s looming Online Safety bill both require site operators to remove extremist content in order to avoid penalties.
