With an aim to limit the hate speeches and terrorist propaganda that is being uploaded on its platform, YouTube has come up with a new mechanism of redirection. Through this, it will redirect users searching for ISIS related things to videos which showcase the victims of terrorism and to those videos where clerics are seen refuting violent religious narratives.
The ‘redirection’ policy is the latest step that the company is taking amid a range of actions that social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are being forced to implement to combat people who have been searching for videos with an ulterior motive and violent mindset.
“Early product integration of the Redirect Method on YouTube is our latest effort to provide more resources and more content that can help change minds of people at risk of being radicalised,” YouTube wrote on its official blog.
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YouTube in its blog also stated that they will expand the new product functionality to a wider set of search queries in other languages beyond English. It will also be using machine learning to dynamically update the search query terms. “Working with expert NGOs on developing new video content designed to counter violent extremist messaging at different parts of the radicalization funnel,” the blog said.
The ‘Redirect Method’ has been developed by Jigsaw, a company owned by Alphabet, to target ISIS-focused videos in particular. Explaining how the process would work, Youtube explains: “Over the past years, Jigsaw partnered with Moonshot CVE to conduct extensive research to understand how extremist groups leverage technology to spread their message and recruit new members. From there, they created the Redirect Method, which uses curated video content to redirect people away from violent extremist propaganda and steer them toward video content that confronts extremist messages and debunks its mythology.”
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“When people search for certain keywords on YouTube, we will display a playlist of videos debunking violent extremist recruiting narratives,” it added.
The method is YouTube’s latest effort to provide resources and content that can change the mind of people who are at a risk of being radicalised.
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