How Can Social Media Companies Help Stop The Spread Of Extremism?

"Over the past 15 years, I briefed each of these companies about this complex issue. The first such briefing, back in December 2010, focused on my research on how Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups were using YouTube to radicalize young people in the West. At Google's invitation, I met with senior Google representatives, including its head of public relations and policy, senior policy manager, senior policy counsel and free speech attorney, at the company's Washington, D.C., office."

"As technology rapidly advances, with AI, crypto, encryption and other innovations, legacy social media and their content moderation policies are in flux. YouTube/Google, Facebook/Meta and Twitter/X all had longtime policies to deal with extremism and bad actors, including terrorists, on their platforms, and made serious efforts to come up with terms of service to deal with this. But those days have passed."

"Since 9/11, these terrorist organizations have grown and succeeded so spectacularly because of their online and social media savvy. Although government and other pressures had had some success in keeping them off these platforms, this post-9/11 progress now seems to have been thrown into reverse in the name of "free speech." This industry reversal can be traced to October 2022, when Elon Musk, upon his acquisition of Twitter, dismissed over 80% of its employees, including many content moderators, announcing that " the bird is freed.""

Major tech platforms have faced persistent challenges with terrorist groups exploiting online tools and social media to radicalize and recruit. Briefings with leading companies since 2010 documented Al-Qaeda and other groups using YouTube, including content by Anwar Al-Awlaki, to reach Western youth. Advances in AI, encryption, crypto, and other technologies have complicated moderation and policy approaches. Initial post-9/11 efforts and enforcement reduced extremist presence on platforms, but a shift toward loosened content controls has enabled renewed visibility for banned accounts. The October 2022 Twitter ownership change and mass layoffs of content moderators notably accelerated this reversal, undermining prior mitigation gains.

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