(PARIS) — The White House is not endorsing a global pledge to step up efforts to keep internet platforms from being used to spread hate, organize extremist groups and broadcast attacks, citing respect for “freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

The statement came Wednesday after world leaders led by French President Emmanuel Macron and executives from Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech companies gathered in Paris to compile a set of guidelines dubbed the “Christchurch Call,” named after the New Zealand city where 51 people were killed in a March attack on mosques. Much of the attack was broadcast live on Facebook, drawing public outrage and fueling debate on how to better regulate social media. Facebook said before the meeting that it was tightening rules for livestream users.

In a statement, the White House said it will “continue to be proactive in our efforts to counter terrorist content online” while also protecting free speech.

The Christchurch Call “is a global response to a tragedy that occurred on the shores of my country but was ultimately felt around the world,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, who has played a leading role pushing for globally coordinated efforts to eliminate online extremism.

“Fundamentally it ultimately commits us all to build a more humane internet, which cannot be misused by terrorists for their hateful purposes,” she said at a joint news conference with Macron.

The French and New Zealand governments drafted the agreement — a roadmap that aims to prevent similar abuses of the internet while insisting that any actions must preserve “the principles of a free, open and secure internet, without compromising human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

The call was adopted by U.S. tech companies that also included Amazon, Microsoft and YouTube, along with France’s Qwant and DailyMotion, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Countries backing France and New Zealand were Britain, Canada, Ireland, Jordan, Norway, Senegal, Indonesia and the European Union’s executive body. Several other countries not present at the meeting added their endorsement.

The meeting in Paris comes at a pivotal moment for tech companies, which critics accuse of being too powerful and resistant to regulation. Some have called for giants like Facebook to be broken up. Europe is leading a global push for more regulation of how the companies handle user data and copyrighted material. The tech companies, meanwhile, are offering their own ideas in a bid to shape the policy response.

Unlike previous official attempts to regulate the internet, “the Christchurch Call is different in that it associates all actors of the internet” including the tech companies themselves, Macron said.

He said he hopes to get broader support for the agreement in coming months, with technical questions to be discussed by June.

In Wednesday’s agreement, which is not legally binding, the tech companies committed to measures to prevent the spread of terrorist or violent extremist content. That may include cooperating on developing technology or expanding the use of shared digital signatures.

They also promised to take measures to reduce the risk that such content is livestreamed, including flagging it up for real-time review.

And they pledged to study how algorithms sometimes promote extremist content. That would help find ways to intervene more quickly and redirect users to “credible positive alternatives or counter-narratives.”

Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter issued a joint supporting statement, outlining in further detail actions they would take individually or together to combat abuse of technology to spread extremist content. They include making it easier for users to flag up inappropriate content, using enhanced vetting for livestreaming and publishing transparency reports on material that’s removed.

Facebook, which dominates social media and has faced the harshest criticism for overlooking the misuse of consumer data and not blocking live broadcasts of violent actions, said separately it is toughening its livestreaming policies.

It’s tightening the rules for its livestreaming service with a “one strike” policy applied to a broader range of offenses. Activity on the social network that violates its policies, such as sharing an extremist group’s statement without providing context, will result in the user immediately being temporarily blocked. The most serious offenses will result in a permanent ban.

Previously, the company took down posts that breached its community standards but only blocked users after repeated offenses.

The tougher restrictions will be gradually extended to other areas of the platform, starting with preventing users from creating Facebook ads.

Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, said it’s investing $7.5 million to improve technology aimed at finding videos and photos that have been manipulated to avoid detection — a problem the company encountered with the Christchurch shooting, where the attacker streamed the killing live on Facebook.

“Tackling these threats also requires technical innovation to stay ahead of the type of adversarial media manipulation we saw after Christchurch,” Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, said in a blog post.

The Christchurch Call was drafted as 80 CEOs and executives from technology companies gathered in Paris for a “Tech for Good” conference meant to address how they can use their global influence for public good — for example by promoting gender equality, diversity in hiring and greater access to technology for lower income users.

Ardern and Macron have insisted that the Christchurch guidelines must involve joint efforts between governments and tech giants. France has been hit by repeated Islamic extremist attacks by groups who recruited and shared violent images on social networks.

Free speech advocates and some in the tech industry bristle at new restrictions and argue that violent extremism is a societal problem that the tech world can’t solve.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that while “a higher level of responsibility is demanded from all of the platforms,” it is necessary to find a way to not censor legitimate discussion.

“It’s a hard line to draw sometimes,” he said. </s> The United States will not be joining the Christchurch Call for Action, a push by New Zealand and France to encourage tech companies and countries to work together to end the use of social media in acts of terrorism, the Trump administration announced Wednesday.

“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,” the White House said in a statement.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the Christchurch Call earlier Wednesday in Paris at a meeting of digital leaders for the G7 nations, just two months after the March 15 mass shootings on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, left 51 dead and many wounded.

Facebook removed 1.5 million videos of the Christchurch attacks in the first 24 hours after the massacre. It also blocked 1.2 million of them at upload, meaning they would not have been seen by users.

“When it came to the way this attack was specifically designed to be broadcast and to go viral, (responding) to that needed a global solution, so that was why we immediately got in contact with international counterparts,” Ardern told CNN Tuesday.

Facebook has signed on to the agreement, introducing new rules for live-streaming. Under the new policy, the alleged Christchurch shooter would not have been able to livestream the massacre from his account in March, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN Business.

The US thanked Ardern and Macron “for organizing this important effort” in its Wednesday statement, noting that the administration “(agrees) with the overarching message” in the nonbinding agreement.

The statement condemned terrorist and violent extremist content online “in the strongest terms,” however, it cited freedom of expression and freedom of the press as reasons it would not be joining the agreement.

“We encourage technology companies to enforce their terms of service and community standards that forbid the use of their platforms for terrorist purposes. 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 read.

It continued: “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.”

The Trump administration has been involved in efforts to end online terrorist content, including its September 2017 endorsement of the Zurich-London Recommendations on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism Online. </s> WASHINGTON – The United States on Wednesday broke with 18 governments and top American tech firms by declining to endorse a New Zealand-led response to the live-streamed shootings at two Christchurch mosques, saying free-speech concerns prevented the White House from formally joining the largest campaign to date targeting extremism online.

The “Christchurch Call,” unveiled at an international gathering in Paris, commits foreign countries and tech giants to be more vigilant about the spread of hate on Facebook and posted afterward on other social media. It reflects heightened global frustrations with the inability of Facebook, Google and Twitter to restrain hateful posts, photos and videos that have spawned real-world violence.

Leaders from across the globe pledged to counter online extremism, including through new regulation, and to “encourage media outlets to apply ethical standards when depicting terrorist events online.” Companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter, meanwhile, said they’d work more closely to ensure their sites don’t become conduits for terrorism. They also committed to accelerated research and information sharing with governments in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.

The call is named after the New Zealand city where a shooter killed 51 people in a March attack broadcast on social-media sites. Facebook, Google and Twitter struggled to take down copies of the violent video as fast as it spread on the web, prompting an international backlash from regulators who felt malicious actors had evaded Silicon Valley’s defenses too easily. Before the attack, the shooter also posted online a hate-filled manifesto that included references to previous mass killings.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron organized the call to action, part of Ardern’s international plea this year for greater social-media accountability. Along with New Zealand and France, countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom endorsed the document, as did tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter. (Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

“We’ve taken practical steps to try and stop what we experienced in Christchurch from happening again,” Ardern said in a statement.

America’s top tech giants celebrated the call – a voluntary effort, not full regulation – as an important step toward tackling one of the Web’s biggest challenges. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter issued a joint statement saying “it is right that we come together, resolute in our commitment to ensure we are doing all we can to fight the hatred and extremism that lead to terrorist violence.”

But the White House opted against endorsing the call to action, and President Donald Trump did not join world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and tech executives, such as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, in Paris. In a statement, the White House said it stands “with the international community in condemning terrorist and violent extremist content online,” and support the goals of the Christchurch call to action. But the White House still said it is “not currently in a position to join the endorsement.”

A day earlier, as negotiations progressed, White House officials raised concerns that the document might run afoul of the First Amendment.

“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 White House said Wednesday. “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.”

Amid global scrutiny, Facebook, Google and Twitter over the past year have hired more reviewers and created new artificial-intelligence tools in an attempt to thwart hate speech, extremism and terrorism online. Despite those efforts, the tech giants were unable to stop the spread of the Christchurch videos.

Fewer than 200 people watched the live stream during the attack, which Facebook said it removed 29 minutes after it began. But within 24 hours, users had attempted to re-upload the video onto Facebook more than 1.5 million times. About 300,000 of those videos slipped through and were published on the site before being taken down by the site’s content-moderation teams and systems designed to automatically remove blacklisted content.

Tech companies on Wednesday committed to enforcing policies that prohibit terrorist and extremist content, improving technology that can spot harmful posts in real time and issuing regular reports about their progress. Facebook, Google and Twitter already have such rules and tools in place, though at times they’ve fielded sharp criticism for not using them effectively. The tech giants also agreed to share more information with one another, particularly to stop the real-time spread of extremism during emergencies like the Christchurch attack.

These companies also promised to implement “appropriate checks on livestreaming,” with the aim of ensuring that videos of violent attacks aren’t broadcast widely, in real time, online. To that end, Facebook this week announced that users who violate its rules – such as sharing content from known terrorist groups – could be prohibited from using its live-streaming tools. The company has said such a restriction might have prevented the Christchurch shooter from broadcasting the attack using his account.

“Terrorism and violent extremism are complex societal problems that require an all-of-society response,” Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Twitter said in their joint statement. “For our part, the commitments we are making today will further strengthen the partnership that Governments, society and the technology industry must have to address this threat.”

The Christchurch call reflects heightened global frustrations with Silicon Valley, which has struggled to stop malicious actors from weaponizing social media platforms to deadly ends around the world. Facebook has been linked to ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, for example, and the company has admitted it failed to prevent the platform from becoming a tool to foster genocide in Myanmar.In response, regulators have introduced or adopted tough new rules over the past year that require social-media sites to take down offensive content faster or face tough fines.

French regulators, meanwhile, positioned a top government official at Facebook to study the company’s efforts to combat hate speech for six months.

U.S. officials also have struggled with the rise of online extremism and its ability to incite real-world violence. Self-proclaimed neo-Nazis used Facebook as an organizing tool ahead of their deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, for example, and the shooter who opened fire on a synagogue in Pittsburgh last year long had posted anti-Semitic screeds on fringe websites.

But even federal policymakers who have grown furious with Silicon Valley have struggled to rein in the industry without violating the First Amendment, which protects even some repugnant speech online. The issue loomed large over U.S. officials as they decided whether to endorse the Christchurch call, sources told The Post, even though Trump has expressed openness to regulating social media sites in other contexts, including in response to concerns that they are politically biased against conservatives.

The governments signing the call include Australia, Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Senegal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The White House’s stance drew criticism from some experts who’ve called for stronger regulation across the Web. Alistair Knott, a computer-science professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said the absence of a U.S. endorsement potentially would undercut the global argument for controlling how hate and violence spread online.

“It seems insufficient to say that free speech prevents the U.S. from doing something about violent extremist attacks,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school. “Congress should consider carefully crafted legislation that both protects core First Amendment interests and public safety.”

But others worried the Christchurch document could potentially blur the lines between government power and free expression.
• Church attack in Burkina Faso kills at least 6 “It’s hard to take seriously this administration’s criticism of extremist content, but it’s probably for the best that the United States didn’t sign,” said James Grimmelmann, a Cornell Tech law professor. “The government should not be in the business of ‘encouraging’ platforms to do more than they legally are required to – or than they could be required to under the First Amendment.”

“The government ought to do its ‘encouraging’ through laws that give platforms and users clear notice of what they’re allowed to do, not through vague exhortations that can easily turn into veiled threats,” Grimmelmann said.

Adrian Shahbaz, a research director at Freedom House, a think tank partially funded by the U.S. government, said he was “alarmed by the vague call for governments to ban more speech” in a way that could have “negative consequences for human rights.”

Greater regulation on tech companies is needed, but “we shouldn’t be calling on tech companies to remove content without also demanding that they act with far more transparency and accountability,” he said. “Otherwise, companies will censor first and ask questions later, leaving users will little recourse to appeal poor decisions and uphold their right to free expression.” </s> Two months after deadly attacks inspired by online hate left dozens dead in Christchurch, New Zealand, the country's prime minister will urge other governments and top tech giants to commit to combating the spread of extremism on social media.

The so-called "Christchurch call" - a voluntary pledge presented on the sidelines of a G-7 gathering in Paris - reflects heightened global fears that Facebook, Google, and Twitter have become conduits for terrorism, unable to keep pace with malicious actors who've proven deft at evading Silicon Valley's efforts to prevent harmful content from going viral on the Web.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron organised Wednesday's meeting in Paris as a response to Ardern's plea in March for greater social media accountability after a shooter killed 51 people at two mosques and streamed the attack live for millions to see online.

Officials from countries including Canada, Britain and the United States are expected to attend, along with representatives of Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter and other tech giants. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is making the trip to Paris, the company said this week, while the White House is dispatching President Donald Trump's top tech adviser. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Ahead of the summit, Facebook on Tuesday announced two efforts to address regulators' concerns and stop the spread of harmful content on its services. Now, users who violate Facebook's "most serious policies" - such as sharing a link to statements from a known terrorist group - would be banned from broadcasting live videos on the platform for set periods of time. Facebook said the policy, if implemented sooner, might have stopped the Christchurch shooter from using the company's live-streaming feature to stream the attacks on the mosques.

The tech giant also pledged to commit $7.5 million to work with researchers at three universities to improve its ability to detect photos and videos that have been manipulated. The new investment follows an admission from Facebook that malicious users evaded its censors by uploading slightly altered versions of the Christchurch attack video.

Facebook, Google, and Microsoft intend to sign the Christchurch agreement, the companies confirmed. Twitter did not indicate its plans, but it described the meeting as a "critical opportunity to listen and learn from various heads of state and digital ministers from across the world."

The White House has not said whether it will sign the document, and a spokesman declined to comment Tuesday. Behind the scenes, though, Trump administration officials said they have been actively negotiating with French and New Zealand officials over the document's text. While the administration supports the document's goals, it fears some of its language would run counter to the Constitution's First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, according to two people familiar with the deliberations but not authorised to discuss them on the record.

Spokespeople for Macron and Ardern did not respond to requests for comment.

Around the world, the Christchurch attack sparked renewed scrutiny of social media. Facebook, Google and Twitter each have hired thousands of reviewers and created new artificial-intelligence tools with the goal of thwarting hate speech, extremism and terrorism online. Despite those efforts, the tech giants were unable to stop the spread of the Christchurch videos, prompting government officials across the world to call for more regulation.

Fewer than 200 people watched the live stream during the attack, which Facebook said it removed 29 minutes after it began. But within 24 hours, users had attempted to re-upload the video onto Facebook more than 1.5 million times. About 300,000 of those videos slipped through and were published on the site before being taken down by the site's content-moderation teams and blacklist algorithms.

Beyond Facebook, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism - a trade group formed by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube - has said more than 800 visually distinct videos of the attack have been "fingerprinted" for its automatic ban list.

In response, Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, has urged the tech giants to take more responsibility and ensure they "are not perverted as a tool for terrorism." She has said the Christchurch call is not about limiting free expression, but rather "preventing violent extremism and terrorism online."

"I don't think anyone would argue that the terrorist on the 15th of March had a right to live-stream the murder of 50 people," she said last month.

Regulators in the European Union have proposed rules requiring tech giants to take down terrorist content within an hour or face steep fines. In the United Kingdom, government leaders last month put forward a proposal that could see social-media sites penalised for failing to combat a wide array of harmful content, including hate speech and cyberbullying. In Sri Lanka, authorities there grew so concerned about social media - and the spread of potential violence - that they shuttered access to Facebook and other sites after attacks on churches there last month.

Last year, France struck a six-month deal with Facebook that allows regulators unprecedented access to study the tech giant's approach to fighting posts and photos that attack people on the basis of race, religion, sexuality or gender. Macron since then has pursued new rules targeting tech companies' efforts to combat hate speech and met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week.

The flurry of activity stands in stark contrast to the United States. Facebook served as an organizing tool for the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville in 2017, for example, and lesser-known fringe websites hosted hateful screeds penned by the man accused of opening fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue last year. But the First Amendment's protections for free speech have left many policymakers reluctant to regulate social media even when those companies have erred.

Alistair Knott, a computer-science professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said companies and governments can combat violent content in a way that does not violate rights to free expression by focusing on how the sites bring it to users, through Internet searches, live-streaming videos and social media feeds.

The systems would not have to actively remove dangerous content, but could filter them out so they are not recommended or shown in people's search results and news feeds, limiting their spread.

Knott said the United States should be involved in the effort, and worried that its refusal to engage could undermine an issue of global importance - particularly because virtually all of the major social-media companies are based there.

"Companies like Facebook are becoming more aware and more willing to make reforms than the U.S., and they're doing it purely on grounds of public opinion," Knott said. But "ultimately the regulation of these tools that transmit information should be a matter for governments, not just the whims of private companies." </s> U.S. Will Not Join Tech Giants In 'Christchurch Call' Pledge Against Online Terror

Tech giants met with a dozen countries Wednesday to sign a joint agreement on how to block terrorist content online. The Trump administration said Wednesday that it would not endorse the plan.

Social media giants say they will work with heads of state to regulate extremist content that spreads online. One key player has refused to endorse the plan - the United States. NPR's Aarti Shahani reports.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: There is a growing rift between the U.S. government and, well, the world. That rift was on full display at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN: Fifty-one men, women and children from the New Zealand Muslim community were killed and were killed online.

SHAHANI: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern helped convene a summit. Today is the two-month anniversary of the Christchurch shooting, where a gunman used Facebook Live to broadcast his massacre. Ardern...

ARDERN: The social media dimension to the attack was unprecedented, and our response today with the adoption of the Christchurch call is equally unprecedented.

SHAHANI: It's been a long road for tech leaders who once fancied themselves protectors of speech, who feared looking too chummy with governments. Now in Paris, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Amazon, Twitter and Microsoft are entering a voluntary compact. It's called the Christchurch Call. Basically they're agreeing to beef up their efforts to catch terrorist content as it spreads across platforms. And they say they'll share more data with each other to make their algorithms smarter, better at identifying a video by ISIS or a white nationalist.

ARDERN: Never before have countries and tech companies come together in the wake of an horrific attack to commit to an action plan.

SHAHANI: The social media giants agreed to work with governments to redirect users away from extremism and let investigators in. French President Emmanuel Macron, heard here with an English voice-over, says he and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg have come to an agreement.

PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (Through interpreter) He has authorized the regulator teams - the teams of French regulators - to join his machine to share confidential information to fight against terrorist content but also hatred content or harassment methods.

SHAHANI: More than a dozen countries have signed today's pact, including France, Germany, United Kingdom, India, Australia and New Zealand. The U.S. is staying out of the deal. The White House sent a tech policy adviser to observe and show support. But in a statement, the Trump administration said the best tool to defeat terrorist speech is productive speech, and thus we emphasize the importance of promoting credible alternative narratives. This stance puts the U.S. increasingly at odds with other countries as well as with American tech giants. Aarti Shahani, NPR News. </s> Major tech firms on Wednesday pledged to come up with new measures for stamping out violent extremist content on the internet, amid growing pressure from governments pushing for action in the wake of the massacres at two New Zealand mosques in March.

Executives from Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft met with the leaders of 18 countries in Paris to unveil the "Christchurch Call" of voluntary commitments for online platforms.

It was named for the city where a gunman killed 51 people at two New Zealand mosques two months ago while broadcasting his rampage live on Facebook via a head-mounted camera.

Getty Images

The social networking giant has faced withering criticism since the attack, after the horrific footage was uploaded and shared millions of times despite efforts to remove it.

"The call is a roadmap to action," New Zealand Premier Jacinda Ardern said at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"It commits us all to build a more humane internet which cannot be misused by terrorists for their hateful purposes," she said.

READ MORE Jacinda Ardern to lead international summit tackling online extremism

What did the tech companies pledge?

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon later released a nine-point plan for jointly putting the Christchurch pledges in motion, in particular for addressing the threat posed by livestreaming.

They promised investments in "digital fingerprinting" to track and remove harmful pictures and videos, and easy-to-use methods for users to report illicit content.

"This is leading to real action, and I think real action can play an important role in at least preventing a number of these kinds of attacks," Microsoft's president and chief legal officer Brad Smith told AFP in Paris.

"No one wants to see the internet used as the staging ground for these kinds of terrorist atrocities," he said.

Facebook had already promised Wednesday to tighten access to Facebook Live, in particular by denying the service to users who have shared extremist content.

0:00 Google.Org President Jacquelline Fuller arriving at Paris tech summit 00:00 / 00:00 Share Share on Twitter

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No US for now

The largely symbolic initiative is intended to keep up the pressure on social media companies, which face growing calls from politicians across the world to prevent their platforms from becoming stages for broadcasting extremist violence.

"Our goal is to never again see the internet transformed into a crazy propaganda machine, a goal sought by both terrorists on the far right and Islamic terrorists," Macron said.

A total of 18 governments signed the call: Australia, Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

But despite the endorsement from the biggest US tech firms, Washington will not join for now, even though "we continue to support the overall goals reflected," the White House said in a statement.

"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," it said.

Getty Images

Macron appeared to take the refusal in stride, saying "The American administration has expressed its support for our effort, which I already consider progress."

The companies said they would cooperate on finding new tools to identify and quickly remove extremist content, such as sharing databases of violent posts or images to ensure they don't spread across multiple platforms.

They also said they would explore tweaking their algorithms to prevent violent or hateful content from going viral, while making it easier for users to report harmful posts.

But it will be up to companies to develop specific tools or policies.

'Can't prevent content'

Many countries have already tightened legislation to introduce penalties for companies that fail to take down offensive content once it is flagged, by either users or the authorities.

But analysts say the tighter controls pledged Wednesday will go only so far in preventing people from circumventing rules and policies already in place against disseminating violence and hate speech.

"You can't prevent content from being uploaded: it would require the resources for tracking everything put online by all internet users," said Marc Rees, editor in chief of the technology site Next INpact.

"Can you imagine trying to get TV or radio to prevent libellous, abusive or violent speech that someone might say?" he asked.

The "Christchurch Call" meeting ran in parallel to an initiative launched by Macron called "Tech for Good" which brought together 80 tech executives to discuss how to harness technologies for the common good.

But the US government was represented only at a junior level at a meeting of G7 digital ministers which also took place Wednesday in Paris. </s> The United States broke with 18 governments and five top American tech firms Wednesday by declining to endorse a New Zealand-led effort to curb extremism online, a response to the live-streamed shootings at two Christchurch mosques that killed 51.

White House officials said free-speech concerns prevented them from formally signing onto the largest campaign to date targeting extremism online. But it was another example of the United States standing at odds to some its closest allies.

Leaders from around the globe, including British Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, signed the “Christchurch Call,” which was unveiled at a gathering in Paris that had been organized by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter also signed on to the document, pledging to work more closely with one another and governments to make certain their sites do not become conduits for terrorism. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was among the attendees at the conference.

The document was nonbinding, but reflected the heightened global frustration with the inability of Facebook, Google and Twitter to restrain hateful posts, photos and videos that have spawned real-world violence.

The governments pledged to counter online extremism, including through new regulation, and to "encourage media outlets to apply ethical standards when depicting terrorist events online.”

The companies agreed to accelerate research and information sharing with governments in the wake of recent terrorist attacks. “It is right that we come together, resolute in our commitment to ensure we are doing all we can to fight the hatred and extremism that lead to terrorist violence,” Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter said in a joint statement. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

But the White House opted against endorsing the effort, and President Trump did not join the other leaders in Paris. The White House felt the document could present constitutional concerns, officials there said, potentially conflicting with the First Amendment, even though Trump previously has threatened to regulate social media out of concern that it’s biased against conservatives.

Hours after declining to sign the document, the White House escalated its war against social media by announcing an unprecedented campaign asking Internet users to share stories of when they thought they were censored by Facebook, Google’s YouTube and Twitter, companies the president frequently takes aim at for alleged political censorship.

Still, in a statement about the Christchurch Call, the White House said it stands “with the international community in condemning terrorist and violent extremist content online,” and supports the call’s goals. But the United States is “not currently in a position to join the endorsement.”

[Facebook, Google will join New Zealand in international pact against online extremism]

The White House’s decision against supporting the Christchurch Call drew criticism from some experts who’ve called for stronger regulation across the Web. Alistair Knott, a computer-science professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said the absence of a U.S. endorsement potentially would undercut the global argument for controlling how hate and violence spread online.

“It seems insufficient to say that free speech prevents the U.S. from doing something about violent extremist attacks,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school. “Congress should consider carefully crafted legislation that both protects core First Amendment interests and public safety.”

But others worried the Christchurch document could potentially blur the lines between government power and free expression.

“It’s hard to take seriously this administration’s criticism of extremist content, but it’s probably for the best that the United States didn’t sign,” said James Grimmelmann, a Cornell Tech law professor. “The government should not be in the business of ‘encouraging’ platforms to do more than they legally are required to — or than they could be required to under the First Amendment.”

“The government ought to do its ‘encouraging’ through laws that give platforms and users clear notice of what they’re allowed to do, not through vague exhortations that can easily turn into veiled threats,” Grimmelmann said.

For its part, the White House stressed it would 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 call is named for the New Zealand city where a shooter killed 51 people in a March attack that was broadcast on Facebook and posted afterward on other social media sites. Facebook, Google and Twitter struggled to take down copies of the violent video as fast as it spread on the Web, prompting an international backlash from regulators who felt malicious actors had evaded Silicon Valley’s defenses too easily. Before the attack, the shooter also posted a hate-filled manifesto online that included references to previous mass killings.

New Zealand’s Ardern said in a statement that the document was intended to help head off a repeat of the Christchurch attacks. “We’ve taken practical steps to try and stop what we experienced in Christchurch from happening again,” Ardern said.

Fewer than 200 people watched the live stream during the attack, which Facebook said it removed 29 minutes after it began. But within 24 hours, users had attempted to re-upload the video onto Facebook more than 1.5 million times. About 300,000 of those videos slipped through and were published on the site before being taken down by the site’s content-moderation teams and systems designed to automatically remove blacklisted content.

Tech companies on Wednesday said they’d pursue a nine-point plan of technical remedies designed to find and combat objectionable content, including instituting more user-reporting systems, more refined automatic detection systems, improved vetting of live-streamed videos and more collective development of organized research and technologies the industry could build and share.

The companies also promised to implement “appropriate checks on live-streaming,” with the aim of ensuring that videos of violent attacks aren’t broadcast widely, in real time, online. To that end, Facebook this week announced a new “one-strike” policy, in which users who violate its rules — such as sharing content from known terrorist groups — could be prohibited from using its live-streaming tools. The company has said such a restriction might have prevented the Christchurch shooter from broadcasting the attack using his account.

“Terrorism and violent extremism are complex societal problems that require an all-of-society response,” Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Twitter said in their joint statement. “For our part, the commitments we are making today will further strengthen the partnership that Governments, society and the technology industry must have to address this threat.”

The Christchurch Call reflects heightened global frustrations with Silicon Valley, which has struggled around the world to stop malicious actors from weaponizing social media platforms to deadly ends. Facebook has been linked to ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, for example, and the company has admitted it failed to prevent the platform from becoming a tool to foster genocide in Myanmar.

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In response, regulators have introduced or adopted tough new rules over the past year that require social media sites to take down offensive content faster or face tough fines. French regulators, meanwhile, positioned a top government official at Facebook to study the company’s efforts to combat hate speech for six months.

U.S. officials also have struggled with the rise of online extremism and its ability to incite real-world violence. Self-proclaimed neo-Nazis used Facebook as an organizing tool ahead of the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, for example, and the shooter who opened fire on a synagogue in Pittsburgh last year had long posted anti-Semitic screeds on fringe websites.

But even federal policymakers who have grown furious with Silicon Valley have struggled to rein in the industry without violating the First Amendment, which protects even repugnant speech. The issue loomed large over U.S. officials as they decided whether to endorse the Christchurch Call, White House officials told The Post, even though Trump has expressed openness to regulating social media sites in other contexts, including in response to concerns that they are politically biased against conservatives.

The disagreement over the Christchurch Call highlighted a long-simmering tension between officials in Europe, which has traditionally shown a greater willingness to rein in and regulate Internet firms, and the United States, where companies are given broad leeway to police themselves.

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Adrian Shahbaz, a research director at Freedom House, a think tank partially funded by the U.S. government, said he was “alarmed by the vague call for governments to ban more speech” in a way that could have “negative consequences for human rights.”

Greater regulation on tech companies is needed, but “we shouldn’t be calling on tech companies to remove content without also demanding that they act with far more transparency and accountability,” he said. “Otherwise, companies will censor first and ask questions later, leaving users with little recourse to appeal poor decisions and uphold their right to free expression.”

Signers included Australia, Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Senegal, Spain, Sweden and Britain. </s> The leaders of France and New Zealand joined with the world’s biggest online platforms in pledging to help curb the internet’s role in spreading hate speech and incitement to violence.

At a summit in Paris Wednesday, representatives from Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc., committed to use and develop rules, algorithms and direct intervention to curb the uploading, promotion, amplification and distribution of violent extremism on social media platforms. The initiative calls for hate speech to be “immediately and permanently” taken down, though isn’t legally binding.

French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, were joined by leaders from the U.K., Canada, Jordan, Indonesia and others to approve the push they dubbed the “Christchurch Call.” The U.S. abstained from a formal endorsement of the agreement due to concerns about restricting free speech, but said it agreed in principle.

The call comes after the March 15 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 51 people were killed by a right-wing extremist who had posted racist manifestos online and then live-streamed his rampage. Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube were widely criticized for failing to quickly remove the video from their platforms.

“Today must be Day One for change,” Ardern told reporters after the summit. “It’s a road map for action, and it’s comforting to see major internet companies committing to collaborative action.”

Macron admitted it was hardly the first time governments have called for action or internet companies have promised steps to contain on-line incitement — he listed a series of forums and initiatives — but he said this time there were leaders from all the world’s continents, civil society, and companies working together.

Companies and states pledged to endorse the initiative that includes transparent reporting of incidents, research for “technical solutions to prevent” the uploading and dissemination of hate speech, the use algorithms to “redirect users from (terrorist and violent extremist content)” or to promote “credible and positive alternatives or counter-narratives.” Macron said more work was needed to define some of what he called “gray zones” around hate speech.

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, Facebook vice president for global affairs and communications Nick Clegg and Google Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker attended the meeting, according to the French president’s office.

Facebook said it’s tightening rules for Facebook Live to try to prevent people from using the streaming service to “cause harm or spread hate.” In a blog post timed to coincide with the summit, the social network said it’s instituting a “one-strike” policy for users who violate its rules on offensive or dangerous content, such as sharing a link to a terrorist group’s statement. Those users will be blocked from using Live to broadcast content for a specific period of time after a first offense. Facebook said the restrictions will be expanded into other areas in the coming weeks.

“At the end of the day, everyone will be judged on their actions,” Ardern said.

Attendees also included U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Irish Premier Leo Varadkar, Senegal President Macky Sall and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, as well as representatives from Amazon, Microsoft Corp. and Vivendi SA’s DailyMotion.

The White House said that while the U.S. 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.”

Macron suggested the U.S. couldn’t sign because of its more absolutist positions on freedom of speech, but both he and Ardern said the U.S. agreed with the general goals.

“The statement they put out demonstrates considerable support for the principles of our call to action,” Ardern said. “I think the statement speaks for itself.” </s> The Trump administration will not sign an international pledge by governments and online services to combat extremist content online. The Christchurch Call is named after the New Zealand city where a terrorist livestreamed the shooting deaths of 50 Muslims in March.

The statement is being formally released today as part of an international summit in Paris. It will bear the signatures of more than a dozen nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Leading technology companies, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, have also signed on. But not the US government.

"The United States stands with the international community in condemning terrorist and violent extremist content online in the strongest terms," the White House said in an emailed statement Wednesday. The US government says it will "continue to support the overall goals reflected in the Call," however, it is "not currently in a position to join the endorsement."

The White House didn't explain why it couldn't support the statement, but the First Amendment seems to be a significant concern, the Washington Post reports. "We maintain that the best tool to defeat terrorist speech is productive speech," the White House said yesterday.

Under the First Amendment, American law protects a broader and more robust concept of free speech than the law in most other countries. Other countries strictly regulate hate speech, pornography, political advertising, and other controversial content. By contrast, the US Supreme Court allows speech restrictions only in a handful of narrow categories, such as child pornography, defamation, and incitement to violence.

Ahead of Wednesday's release of the international statement, Facebook announced that it would be expanding its "one strike" policy for Facebook Live. Anyone who commits one of several major infractions under Facebook rules—for example by linking to pro-terrorism propaganda—will now be banned from using Facebook Live for a period of time (such as 30 days) on the first offense. Facebook says that such users will also be restricted from buying ads on the platform.
Representatives from 17 world governments and various U.S. technology companies meet in Paris to support a set of anti-terrorism guidelines called the "Christchurch Call to Action" drafted by the governments of France and New Zealand. The White House expressed support for the "overall goals reflected" in this pledge, but refused to back it, citing freedom of speech concerns.