Vertical Markets

Project to stop violent video sharing

by Mark Rowe

The Home Office is providing funding for a project to stop violent videos being shared online after terrorist attacks. The new funding, announced by Prime Minster Boris Johnson at the UN General Assembly in New York, will support developing industry-wide technology that can automatically identify online videos which have been altered to avoid detection methods, and help prevent them from being shared online.

The announcement follows the Christchurch attack in New Zealand in March, in which 51 people were killed and which saw hundreds of versions of the attacker’s live-streamed video spread across online platforms. Facebook removed over 1.5 million uploads of the video from their platform. Many had been intentionally edited to evade current content filters and, in some cases, it took days for them to be removed.

UK data scientists, supported by the Home Office, will use the new funding to create an algorithm which any technology company can use, freely, to improve the way that they detect violent and harmful videos and prevent them being shared by their users.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “The sharing of images of terrorist attacks has a devastating effect on the families and loved ones of victims and plays into terrorists’ hands by amplifying their twisted messages. The UK has a track record of showing that state of the art technology can be developed, in partnership with industry, at relatively low cost and this is just the latest example of our commitment to working with industry to tackle our shared challenges and respond to the ever evolving threats which we face.”The announce

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