Facebook acknowledged that the internet plays a role in the radicalization of members of groups like Isis and Al Qaeda, but pointed to unspecified "academic research" that this process "primarily occurs offline". The company said its own "stance is simple: There’s no place on Facebook for terrorism". Reports of potential terrorism posts are reviewed "urgently and with scrutiny", and those that support terrorism are removed. If there is evidence of imminent harm, the authorities are notified.
Facebook's increasing focus on artificial intelligence is aiding its work to take down terrorist content, the majority of which it said is detected by its own methods rather than user reports. AI is used to match images in posts with previous known terrorist propaganda and increasingly for text analysis to detect support for terrorist groups. Once terrorist material is detected on a page, the search then fans out to related pages and people to detect any terrorist groups, including on other Facebook properties such as WhatsApp and Instagram. The social network is also stepping up its work on recidivists, who return under new names after having an account shut down.
Where AI fails, Facebook has a team of 150 employees working specifically on counter-terrorism. This includes academic experts on counterterrorism, former prosecutors, former law enforcement agents and analysts, and engineers. The specialist team speaks nearly 30 languages. It also has a global team that responds "within minutes" to emergency requests from law enforcement.
Furthermore, the company reiterated its continued work with governments, international bodies and other companies in the sector on taking down extremist content and tracing terrorists online. Facebook said its social network should be a "hostile place for terrorists", and the company will continue to share more about its work in this area as it develops in future.
