Facebook, Google, and Twitter have been screening and filtering extremist content for years, but on Wednesday, the gatekeepers of the internet confirmed to Congress that they are accelerating their efforts and will target users who may be exposed to extremist/terrorist content, redirecting them instead to "positive and moderate" posts.
Representatives for the three companies testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to outline specific ways they are trying to combat extremism online. Facebook, Google, and Twitter aren't just tinkering with their algorithms to restrict certain kinds of violent content and messaging. They're also using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to manufacture what they call "counterspeech," which has a hauntingly Orwellian ring to it. Essentially, their goal is to catch burgeoning extremists, or people being radicalized online, and re-engineer them via targeted propagandistic advertisements.
Comment: In fact it already has. Their use of vague language is by design, and thus can be used to call almost anything 'extremist' or 'radicalization'. Content that exposes one to the truth or goes against the official line can and will be treated as such the further we go down this road. See also: