News and Media

CEP today called on members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to use their Tuesday hearing on hate crimes and white nationalism to hold the tech industry accountable for its failure to permanently remove extremist and terrorist content in disregard for public safety and security, particularly in the wake of the New Zealand shootings. Ahead of Facebook and Google’s testimony, CEP is releasing a list of questions with the aim of holding tech companies accountable for their inaction regarding extremist content online.

CEP issued statements today following the vote in the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on the draft report on Preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. CEP Executive Director David Ibsen said in part: “Today’s vote was a critical step forward in the worldwide fight against the spread of terrorism. Police investigations have repeatedly proven the critical link between radicalizing content online and terrorist incidents. The easy availability of terrorist content online continues to have a huge impact on radicalization, recruitment, and incitement to violence."

Last weekend, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg , called for governments and regulators to become involved in censoring harmful content online. However, Mr. Zuckerberg’s call was intentionally heavy on idealism and rhetoric, and light on specifics. Once more, the company’s PR strategy is carefully calibrated to give the public very little understanding of how Mr. Zuckerberg plans to support his words with action.

What made Europeans join global jihad? On April 8 in New York, GLOBSEC and the Counter Extremism Project will present research findings into the pathways and patterns of individual jihadists who joined the terrorism movement, as a first step toward the design of sustainable prevention strategies. The event will be begin at 3 p.m at Convene, 780 Third Avenue, 18th Floor Union Square Hub.

CEP reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence. Today’s release shows that two weeks after the New Zealand shootings, the infamous video is still being uploaded over the Internet. Additionally, social media accounts for the white supremacist group Patriot Front were located and ISIS continues its online activities.

The recent New Zealand attacks have once again made clear that the tech industry’s preferred paradigm of self-regulation has failed. Tech companies have been unable or unwilling to establish clear standards of what constitutes impermissible extremist and terrorist material, or deploy adequate tools to quickly and completely remove such content.

What made Europeans join global jihad? On April 8 in New York, GLOBSEC and the Counter Extremism Project will host an event to present research findings into the pathways and patterns of individual jihadists who joined the terrorism movement, as a first step toward the design of sustainable prevention strategies. The event will be begin at 3 p.m at Convene, 780 Third Avenue, 18th Floor Union Square Hub.