Tech giants to target attacker manifestos in database

Some of the biggest US tech companies, including Facebook and Microsoft, are planning to significantly expand the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias.

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism's (GIFCT) database has traditionally focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organisations such as ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Now, the group has said that over the next few months it will add attacker manifestos -- often shared by sympathisers after white supremacist violence -- and other publications and links flagged by UN initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups.

Speaking to Reuters, Nicholas Rasmussen, GIFCT’s executive director, said that technology groups want to combat a wider range of threats.

Fourteen companies can access the GIFCT database, including Reddit, Snapchat-owner Snap, Facebook-owned Instagram, Verizon Media, Microsoft's LinkedIn and file-sharing service Dropbox. GIFCT was created in 2017 under pressure from U.S. and European governments after a series of deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels.