8 tech companies and 18 governments sign the Christchurch Call to curb online extremism; the US backs off

Yesterday, New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, and French President, Emmanuel Macron brought together world governments and leaders from the tech sector to adopt the Christchurch Call.

This call is a non-binding agreement to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online after the Christ church terror attack, which took place March 15 and killed 51 Muslim worshipers in Christchurch mosques in New Zealand. Tech companies scrambled to take action due to the speed and volume of content which was live streamed on Facebook and then subsequently uploaded, reuploaded and shared by the users worldwide.

“The Christchurch Call is a commitment by Governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. It rests on the conviction that a free, open and secure internet offers extraordinary benefits to society. Respect for freedom of expression is fundamental. However, no one has the right to create and share terrorist and violent extremist content online.”, reads the call.

These tech companies and governments will also be developing tools to prevent the upload of terrorist and violent extremist content; countering the roots of violent extremism; increasing transparency around the removal and detection of content, and reviewing how companies’ algorithms to direct users to violent extremist content. Representatives from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and other tech giants have also agreed to identify "appropriate checks on live streaming, aimed at reducing the risk of disseminating terrorist and violent extremist content online". Two days ago in a statement, Facebook declared that from now on they will start restricting users from using Facebook Live if they break certain rules-including their Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy.

In addition to signing the Christchurch Call, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft are publishing nine steps that they will take to address the abuse of technology to spread terrorist and violent extremist content. These nine steps include five individual actions that each company is committing to take and a further four collaborative actions they’ll take together.

user reporting of terrorist and violent extremist content;

enhancing technology;

live streaming, and

transparency reports.

Also included were four collaborative actions such as shared technology development, crisis protocols, educating the public about terrorist and extremist violent content online and combating hate and bigotry.

Also, to be noted, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was the only social media CEO to attend the Call. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was a no show with Facebook’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg attending the call. Microsoft was represented by President Brad Smith while Wikimedia was represented by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Senior Vice President for Global Affairs Kent Walker participated on behalf of Google.

https://twitter.com/Policy/status/1128693729181749248

The signing of the Christchurch Call was organized around a meeting of digital ministers from the Group of 7 nations this week in Paris. Until now 18 countries and tech organizations have joined the call, pledging to counter the drivers of terrorism and violent extremism, and ensure effective enforcement of applicable laws. The Call was adopted at the meeting by France, New Zealand, Canada, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Norway, Senegal, the UK, and the European Commission. Other countries who have adopted the Call but were not at the meeting are Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

Sri Lanka has not signed the agreement. In April, Sri Lanka has massive bombings on churches and hotels, which killed 321 people and led to the Sri Lankan government issuing a blanket social media ban in the weeks to come for fear of them inciting further violence, fear and spread of misinformation. Sri Lanka’s junior minister for defense, Ruwan Wijewardene, in an initial investigation had revealed the bombings were related to New Zealand mosque attack. However, Ardern denied those claims stating that the New Zealand government was not aware of any such intelligence.

Interestingly, the U.S also refused to join other nations to pledge the Christchurch Call. A statement from the White House reads, “While the United States is not currently in a position to join the endorsement, we continue to support the overall goals reflected in the Call. We will continue to engage governments, industry, and civil society to counter terrorist content on the Internet,”

“We continue to be proactive in our efforts to counter terrorist content online while also continuing to respect freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” the statement reads. “Further, we maintain that the best tool to defeat terrorist speech is productive speech, and thus we emphasize the importance of promoting credible, alternative narratives as the primary means by which we can defeat terrorist messaging.”

Critics shot down White House’s refusal to pledge to the non-binding Christchurch Call.

https://twitter.com/cwarzel/status/1128701486144282624

https://twitter.com/MarkMellman/status/1128691586001326082

https://twitter.com/StollmeyerEU/status/1128782543585775616

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1128742138903056385

The Christchurch call is the first time when governments and tech companies have jointly agreed to a set of commitments and ongoing collaboration to make the internet safer.

“We can be proud of what we have started with the adoption of the Christchurch Call. We’ve taken practical steps to try and stop what we experienced in Christchurch from happening again” Jacinda Ardern said. “From here, I will work alongside others signed up to the Christchurch Call to bring more partners on board, and develop a range of practical initiatives to ensure the pledge we have made today is delivered”, she added.

Digital ministers of the Group of 7 nations, who signed the Christ Church call are also meeting today to discuss an upcoming charter that would cover broader territory than the Christchurch Call on toxic content and tech regulation in general.

https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar/status/1128771650391093250

https://twitter.com/adamihad/status/1128298612734201858

Although critics praised the call for its use of existing laws against extremist and terrorist content and its insistence that legal and platform content regulation measures comply with intelligent human rights law, they also listed certain shortcomings.

https://twitter.com/mediamorphis/status/1128773160357302273

Read the full text of Christchurch call here.

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