According to a new statement by Facebook, they have joined with YouTube, Microsoft, and Twitter to create a shared database of “terrorist content” which they can all jointly use to identify further attempts to post such banned content.
The database will create hashes of videos and images that they’ve already decided are related to terrorism, and then will allow them to single out any further content matching those hatches. Facebook says this will allow them to more quickly remove such content.
The move is an attempt to react to US government demands to “do something” against terrorist propaganda, with the companies apparently hoping that the voluntary crackdown will be enough to stave off any formal government efforts to regulate them.
It’s unclear exactly what the scope of this program is going to end up being, and how broadly defined “terrorist propaganda” will be. Company offiicals are downplaying concerns of censorship, however, insisting that they have to act quickly to take such content down so no one sees it.
Remember when the government tried to say that anyone with a Libertarian bumber sticker might be a terrorist? Or Hillary saying that the Green Party candidate was a Russian agent?