As demands for international agreements on “regulation of cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremism and terrorist planning” mounts up – Google has rolled out one of its ambitious projects on digital counter-terrorism. In recent days, both Facebook and Google have been under pressure to revamp their platform in such a manner that it is not used to propagate terrorist propaganda.
Cyber terrorism
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation defines cyber terrorism as any ‘premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which results in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.’
With time, the online platforms like Facebook and YouTube have been used to propagate terrorist agenda and influence viewers to take up terrorism as the most appropriate route to protest.
Project Redirect Method
The ISIS is seen as the first terrorist group which has a strong presence in both physical as well as the digital space. The online medium is being used to design a steady stream of videos of hostages, battlefields, documentaries, and leadership statements. The terrorist group also has its own set of loyal followers who pose as poster-kids in the news, sympathize and support terrorist messages in social media, and thereby reinforce the entire network of terror activities.
Google has collaborated with Jigsaw, its in-house think tank, to bury all the ISIS-related propaganda on YouTube. The project has been named as Project Redirect Method, and it makes use of AdWords tools and curated YouTube videos to confront online radicalization. The goal is that whenever a potential ISIS recruit looks for extremist content using the predefined keyword, they will be redirected to videos which confronts the terrorist groups. These videos debunk the ISIS recruiting themes and tackle discourses on violent activities.
This project has started as a pilot program and enlists 320,000 viewers who are potential ISIS recruits based on the content explored. The eight-week program uses citizen journalism and documentary videos to counter pro-ISIS narratives. Once all the curated content is in place, targeted advertising campaigns will be created to take the curated videos to those who are looking for information on the caliphate, the ISIS, and other extremist content. These ads are served as and when people tend to search for jihadist content online.
Cyber terrorism is one of the major problems which governments across the globe are trying to tackle. As with any crime, the need is to have a collaborative outlook on the entire problem. Therefore, social media giants have taken steps to counter terrorism by bringing necessary changes on their platform.
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