Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-01-2018

xecutives from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have defended their attempts to prevent the spread of extremist content on their platforms in a Senate hearing.

CNN Money reports, the social media firms stressed the increasing effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to spot posts from terrorists in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Facebook’s head of policy and counterterrorism, Monika Bickert says, 99% of terrorism content from ISIS and Al Qaeda is detected and removed before any user reports it thanks to automated tools like photo and video matching.

YouTube’s director of public policy Juniper Downs meanwhile noted that 98% of violent extremist videos removed from the service are now identified by algorithms, up from 40% last June.

Some members of the Senate committee expressed skepticism, however.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat representing Florida, described the use of AI tools for “screening out most of the bad guys’ stuff” as “encouraging,” but “not quite enough.”

The Facebook and YouTube executives each noted previously announced plans to recruit thousands of additional workers to review content across their platforms, including extremist content.

The hearing focused on domestic and international terrorism activity on the platforms.

Twitter: @FaizelPatel143