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Internet platforms will struggle to dislodge extremism

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Subject

Extremism online.

Significance

In late December 2017, the UK parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee met technology firms Google, Facebook and Twitter to discuss the platforms' role in “radicalising and grooming users” and creating "bubbles of hate" through algorithmic filtering and automated recommendations of extremist content. Until recently these firms have been resistant to this argument, citing in-house research that an individual user’s own choices play a larger role than computational filtering in the selection of content that they are shown. However, this position is becoming increasingly untenable. They are under heightened pressure to accept a level of responsibility for the content hosted on the platforms and the effect this content can have on users.

Impacts

  • Suspension of extremist accounts will drive even more of these groups to seek out alternative platforms.
  • More committed individuals may find themselves in an increasingly isolated ‘bubble of hate’.
  • The changes will increase costs for social media providers, but will remove the immediate political pressure on platforms.

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