terrorism
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Google is making free anti-terrorism moderation tools for smaller websites
Google is helping smaller websites fight terrorist content by making a free moderation tool.
Buffalo gunman clips proliferate on social media following Twitch removal
Following Saturday’s horrific mass shooting in Buffalo, online platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Twitter are struggling to prevent various versions of the gunman’s livestream from proliferating on their platforms.
Iraqi prime minister says he was the target of a drone assassination attempt
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said he was the target of a failed assassination attempt using drones.
Homeland Security may use companies to find extremism on social media
Homeland Security is considering using private companies to help it find extremist threats on social media.
EU approves rules for rapid takedown of online terrorist content
Platforms will have an hour to remove such material or face possible fines.
Feds charge man with planning to blow up an Amazon data center
The FBI has charged a Texas man with planning to blow up an Amazon data center in Virginia and help 'kill' most of the internet.
Sorry, judges, encrypted chat is not like a private thought
A judge recently claimed that encrypted messages are similar to private thoughts. We, and the FBI, bed to differ.
Facebook temporarily bans ads for gun accessories and military gear
Facebook has paused all ads for gun accessories and military gear in the US through President-elect Biden's inauguration.
Twitch clarifies its ban on terrorist and extremist content
The service reinforced that there's no place for such material on its platform.
Hitting the Books: Hackers can convince your IoT devices to betray you
Welcome to Hitting the Books. With less than one in five Americans reading just for fun these days, we've done the hard work for you by scouring the internet for the most interesting, thought provoking books on science and technology we can find and delivering an easily digestible nugget of their stories.
Twitter bans accounts related to Hamas and Hezbollah
Over the weekend, Twitter suspended multiple accounts related to militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move represents a reversal from Twitter's previous position on the two organizations. In the past, the company had said that it differentiated between the political and military arms of Hamas and Hezbollah, a stance that put Twitter at odds with other tech companies, including Facebook and Google, and effectively allowed the groups to continue using the platform. The company has yet to issue a statement on the takedown, though navigating to those accounts show they violated Twitter's terms of service. We've reached out to the company for further information, and we'll update this article when we hear back.
TikTok is the latest platform to pull ISIS propaganda videos
TikTok may have a terrorism problem. According to The Wall Street Journal, Islamic State militants have been posting short propaganda videos to the platform. That's especially concerning because TikTok is so popular with impressionable teenagers.
Facebook will train its content-removal AI with police camera footage
Facebook will use footage from police body cameras to train its automatic detection systems to spot and remove footage of mass shootings. The company announced Tuesday that it will partner with law enforcement in the US and UK to obtain footage from their firearms training programs. Data from those videos should help Facebook's systems detect real-world, first-person footage of violent events.
Australia will block domains with extremist material during terror attacks
Australia's quest to fight online extremism will soon involve temporary but far-reaching bans. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that the country will block internet domains hosting extremist material in the middle of terrorist attacks and other crises, such as the anti-Muslim shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand this past March. The government also plans to block domains hosting "abhorrent" material created by the perpetrators, such as murder and sexual assault.
US Homeland Security Committee subpoenas 8chan owner
The House Committee on Homeland Security has subpoenaed 8chan owner Jim Watkins to testify before congress after the site was linked to a deadly mass shooting in El Paso. "At least three acts of deadly white supremacist extremist violence have been linked to 8chan in the last six months," wrote Chairman Bennie G. Thompson and Ranking Member Mike Rogers.
US Treasury has 'serious concerns' Libra could be used for terrorism
The US government views cryptocurrencies, including Facebook-backed Libra, as a national security issue. In a press conference today, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Treasury Department has "very serious concerns" that Libra could be misused by money launderers, terrorist financiers and other bad players. While the concerns are not entirely surprising, they do make the US government's stance on cryptocurrency more than clear.
Canada reveals measures to tackle online extremism
Canada has announced several measures to combat online extremism. Public Safety Canada said the government will provide up to $1 million CAD ($762,000) to a program called Tech Against Terrorism. The funding will help set up a system to inform smaller companies when terrorist content pops up to help them remove it faster. The agency said that will "help to achieve the commitment under the Christchurch Call to Action to support small platforms as they build capacity to remove terrorist and violent extremist content."
US now requires social media info for visa applications
If you want to stay in the US, you'll likely have to share your internet presence. As proposed in March 2018 (and to some extent in 2015), the country now requires virtually all visa applicants to provide their social media account names for the past five years. The mandate only covers a list of selected services, although potential visitors and residents can volunteer info if they belong to social sites that aren't mentioned in the form.
Twitter suspensions for promoting terrorism drop yet again
Twitter has released its latest transparency report, covering July-December 2018. During that time, it suspended 166,513 accounts for promoting terrorism. It said 91 percent of them were identified by internal systems, and the figure is 19 percent lower than in the previous six months. The company suggested there's a steady decrease in terrorist groups trying to use the platform, party due to its "zero-tolerance policy enforcement." It noted that, in most cases, it takes action against these accounts while people are setting them up and before they ever post a tweet.
Google manually reviewed a million suspected terrorist videos on YouTube
In the first three months of 2019, Google manually reviewed more than a million suspected "terrorist videos" on YouTube, Reuters reports. Of those reviewed, it deemed 90,000 violated its terrorism policy. That means somewhere around nine percent of the million videos were removed, suggesting that either the videos must be rather extreme to get cut, or the process that flags them for review is a bit of a catchall.
