Charlottesville Spurs Tech Monitoring of Hate Content; Experts Wonder for How Long
Attention on last weekend’s violence during a white supremacists’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (see 1708160044), is spurring tech companies to distance themselves from neo-Nazi organizations. But experts said the tech industry acts only when there's national focus on such issues.
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Companies need to be more proactive, anti-discriminatory group specialists said in interviews this week. GoDaddy.com and Google (see 1708140044) told neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer it violated terms of service and to move its domain elsewhere. PayPal said it ensures payments or donations aren't used by organizations like the Ku Klux Klan or Nazi groups for activities that promote hate, violence and racial intolerance that violates its "acceptable use policy."
Facebook, Google's YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft have been working for several months to address online terrorism content globally. A Facebook spokeswoman said its activities also apply to domestic groups. It doesn't matter where a hate group is based; the company removes hate speech including material and posts that directly target people for characteristics like race and any praise of violent acts and hate groups, she said. Facebook's community standards don't allow hate groups or terrorist organizations, defined as those whose mission is violent or engaged in violent acts, to exist or organize on the site, she said.
A Google spokesman said YouTube is taking steps to fight terrorist content. YouTube blogged Aug. 1 it will soon apply tougher standards to videos flagged by users for potential hate speech and violent extremism violations. "If we find that these videos don’t violate our policies but contain controversial religious or supremacist content, they will be placed in a limited state," meaning such videos won't be recommended, monetized or have features like comments or likes, it said. Other steps include increased use of machine learning to find such content more quickly.
Counter Extremism Project Executive Director David Ibsen told us companies pay more attention to remove hate- and terrorist-related content after an attack, but are typically "very reluctant" to do so otherwise unless reputations and potential revenue are at risk. YouTube was criticized for years for hosting ISIS- and al Qaeda-related videos, and started using human detection, machine learning and other methods when faced with a "massive advertiser revolt," he said. Ibsen expects tech companies will respond more quickly in removing online content posted by white supremacy and so-called alt-right groups "because it's in the news." He said it's unclear how long that effort will last. When companies remove content, it's because terms of service are violated like GoDaddy did with Daily Stormer, he noted. It couldn't have been the first time the neo-Nazi website violated the company's terms, Ibsen said, but it's likely GoDaddy just didn't look for it, have the capacity to find it or "didn't bother to" until Charlottesville.
Heidi Beirich, director the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, said PayPal is taking its own policy "seriously" after her organization warned the company for years it enables hate groups to raise money on its platform. "This is an issue that spans Silicon Valley, unfortunately, and is only now beginning to be addressed," she said. Many companies have policies that expressly restrict hate and abuse, but they're not usually willing to enforce them, she said: "More companies should take note now before the next Charlottesville."