NZ and France looking to slow terror content on social media

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gzt

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#249075 24-Apr-2019 09:34

NZ and French governments are looking at social media and terrorism:

Stuff: New Zealand and France have announced they will bring countries and tech companies together to try and stop social media platforms being used to promote terrorism and violent extremism.

The move was announced on Wednesday morning, in the wake of the March 15 terrorist attacks in Christchurch.

Many of these companies youtube and facebook have created business models not unlike the tabloid newspapers of old days. Shock and headlines get more clicks and sell more advertising. Extremist content gets people very upset and keeps them engaged. Then they in turn create more content.

Adding to that issue there is no context. A post on some dangerous and stupid challenge is rapidly shared with no indication of the number of injuries it has caused. Similarly extremist content is shared without any info that a number of people who viewed this content went on to disown their friends and family and kill their neighbors.

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#2223146 24-Apr-2019 12:18

Here is the full release:

New Zealand and France announced today that the two nations will bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism, in the wake of the March 15 terrorist attacks in Christchurch New Zealand.

The meeting will take place in Paris on May 15, and will be co-chaired by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The meeting aims to see world leaders and CEOs of tech companies agree to a pledge called the ‘Christchurch Call’ to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

The meeting will be held alongside the “Tech for Humanity” meeting of G7 Digital Ministers, of which France is the Chair, and France’s separate “Tech for Good” summit, both on 15 May. Jacinda Ardern will also meet with civil society leaders on 14 May to discuss the content of the Call.

“The March 15 terrorist attacks saw social media used in an unprecedented way as a tool to promote an act of terrorism and hate. We are asking for a show of leadership to ensure social media cannot be used again the way it was in the March 15 terrorist attack,” Jacinda Ardern said.

“We’re calling on the leaders of tech companies to join with us and help achieve our goal of eliminating violent extremism online at the Christchurch Summit in Paris.

“We all need to act, and that includes social media providers taking more responsibility for the content that is on their platforms, and taking action so that violent extremist content cannot be published and shared.

“It’s critical that technology platforms like Facebook are not perverted as a tool for terrorism, and instead become part of a global solution to countering extremism. This meeting presents an opportunity for an act of unity between governments and the tech companies.

“In the wake of the March 15 attacks New Zealanders united in common purpose to ensure such attacks never occur again. If we want to prevent violent extremist content online we need to take a global approach that involves other governments, tech companies and civil society leaders

“Social media platforms can connect people in many very positive ways, and we all want this to continue.

“But for too long, it has also been possible to use these platforms to incite extremist violence, and even to distribute images of that violence, as happened in Christchurch. This is what needs to change.”

BoerieGalore

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#2223164 24-Apr-2019 13:10

Good intentions here but I fear the outcome of all of this will just be more net censorship and more spying etc on innocent people.

You can only control the social media platforms that are big corporation owned. It may work for facebook/twitter/google/youtube etc... I fear that Free speech social media platforms (ie gab) will just start to boom and we will return to the days of the dark old web.

The PM should be spending her time focusing on issues here at home.

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#2223196 24-Apr-2019 14:47

BoerieGalore:

I fear that Free speech social media platforms (ie gab) will just start to boom and we will return to the days of the dark old web.

As an old-time usenet poster/reader, and occasional IRC user, one advantage of that was the most dark old stuff that should have never seen the light of day never really did. At least what was happening on usenet etc then didn't appear in mainstream news sites and as a consequence you didn't in real life have to face barrages of regurgitated fake-news from "angry old people", as seems to happen routinely now.

As human nature seems to trend to become increasingly vile when an expectation of anonymity is in place, completely uncensored sites do have the characteristic that they become less acceptable to "ordinary folks". I haven't seen "gab", but my expectations are very low.

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#2223198 24-Apr-2019 14:52

BoerieGalore:

I fear that Free speech social media platforms (ie gab) will just start to boom and we will return to the days of the dark old web.

Gab is a cesspit of white identitarians and racists. Sure, they exist elsewhere but seem to find quite at home there.

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#2223221 24-Apr-2019 15:15

Fred99:

As human nature seems to trend to become increasingly vile when an expectation of anonymity is in place, completely uncensored sites do have the characteristic that they become less acceptable to "ordinary folks". I haven't seen "gab", but my expectations are very low.

History has proven over and over in the past that censorship only drives the hate underground and allows evil ideologies to fester unchallenged faster.

Human nature is evil with / without anonymity in place. Surely "ordinary folks" must be free to challenge evil out in the open?

Facebook in my opinion was just a tool in this instance to spread evil. There are many other platfroms that could have also been used. Whatsapp could probably have been equally effective. Kids at my sons school were caught sharing the video over whatapp because instagram/facebook/twitter etc are all blocked on the schools network. I dont even think whatsapp is classed as social media, and it has excellent encryption from what I can tell.

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#2223238 24-Apr-2019 15:49

BoerieGalore:

History has proven over and over in the past that censorship only drives the hate underground and allows evil ideologies to fester unchallenged faster.

Has it?

I'm pretty happy that for example paedophilia is censored. Would the world be a better place if it wasn't, or less violent if for example websites recruiting and indoctrinating muslim extremism were tolerated? What makes defending sites promoting far right extremism / bigotry a subject for debate as to the fundamental rights and wrongs of censorship?

Driving scumbags underground might not eliminate them, but at least it keeps them contained in their cages.

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#2223264 24-Apr-2019 16:15

Fred99:

I'm pretty happy that for example paedophilia is censored. Would the world be a better place if it wasn't, or less violent if for example websites recruiting and indoctrinating muslim extremism were tolerated?

Is it really censored at all? If you were that kind of person I'm sure your fix is so close that its just a few characters in your url bar. Obviously google and the other mainstream search engines would make it hard for you to find it. Not so sure about duckduckgo though? I dont want to try it. But those that are into that kind of crap still do have very easy access to it. A url is very easy shared.

I have a certain family "friend" on facebook that always shares his sometimes vile views with the world. I like the idea that I get to challenge him online and in front of his "audience". Yes I could unfriend him and let hm just continue, but honestly I prefer not to. I dont think any normal human being would share kidiporn etc on facebook. But if one of my family friends ever did I would expect a huge backlash.

The net needs to be kept uncensored. People and especially children need to learn how to use it properly.

Fred99:

Driving scumbags underground might not eliminate them, but at least it keeps them contained in their cages.

I dont believe it contains them at all. It just puts the rest of us into nice little comfortable silos.

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Fred99

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#2223337 24-Apr-2019 19:34

I'm reasonably comfortable with driving them underground. Reason - they influence others.

While I'm not disagreeing with your philosophical opposition to censorship and the reality that eradicating scumbags entirely won't be possible, I think what we've been seeing is broad desensitisation to abhorrent human behaviour, and a subsequent bias and increased tolerance for what we should be intolerant of.