Fact:
On April 3, 2017, the day Vladimir Putin was due to visit the city, a suicide bombing was carried out in the St. Petersburg metro, killing 15 people and injuring 64. An al-Qaeda affiliate, Imam Shamil Battalion, claimed responsibility.
Communications technology is having a hard time keeping pace with disinformation on the internet, particularly the radicalising propaganda put out by terrorist groups. Despite strenuous international efforts, jihadist incitement remains difficult to remove from the World Wide Web. A report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) casts doubt on YouTube’s proclaimed ability to expeditiously remove propaganda videos by the barbaric extremist group called the Islamic State (ISIS). CEP said that “91% of these ISIS videos were uploaded more than once; 24% of terrorist videos included in the study remained online for more than two hours; and 60% of the 278 accounts responsible for uploading the videos remained active after posting content that violated YouTube’s terms of service." CEP Executive Director David Ibsen said it was alarming that “despite big tech’s promises of combating online extremism and terrorism, noxious, previously prohibited content continues to persist across all major platforms.” Ibsen notes that ISIS videos were uploaded 163,000 times in the past three months. “That should be a wake-up call to lawmakers around the world that terror-inciting content remains pervasive and that these companies must do more to remove it once and for all.”
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On April 3, 2017, the day Vladimir Putin was due to visit the city, a suicide bombing was carried out in the St. Petersburg metro, killing 15 people and injuring 64. An al-Qaeda affiliate, Imam Shamil Battalion, claimed responsibility.
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