Google creates free tool for small online platforms to tackle 'terrorist' content

Google has created a free tool for small, user-created online platforms to deal with terrorist content.

Called Altitude, the free tool is built by Jigsaw — a unit within Google that tracks extremism, disinformation and censorship — and the UN-backed online counter-terrorism non-profit group called Tech Against Terrorism.

The tool gives small online platforms access to a central database of content deemed to be created by terrorist organisations, reports The Wired. The database, maintained by Tech Against Terrorism, is already used by major tech companies.

“The tool aims to give smaller platforms the ability to easily and efficiently detect terrorist content on their networks and remove it,” the report noted.

The project is also working with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, an industry-led group founded in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube.

“Islamic State and other terrorist groups didn't give up on the Internet just because they no longer had the megaphone of their social media platforms. They went elsewhere,” Yasmin Green, CEO of Jigsaw, was quoted as saying in the report. “They found this opportunity to host content on file-hosting sites or other websites, small and medium platforms.”

Altitude will also provide context about the terrorist groups the content is associated with.

Tech Against Terrorism works with more than 100 platforms, including messaging apps, video-sharing platforms, social media networks and forums.