Trump Administration Cites Free Speech in Declining to Join ‘Christchurch Call to Action’ to Curb Terrorism Activity Online

The U.S. is sitting out an international initiative — sparked by the March terrorist attack on Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand — aimed at halting the spread of terrorist and extremist content on social media, citing the need for freedom of speech.

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At a meeting Wednesday in Paris, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, five tech companies — Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Amazon — signed on to the Christchurch Call to Action, which outlines a nine-point plan for steps the industry has committed to take to address the abuse of their platforms to spread terrorist content.

Among the changes: Facebook said it will ban users from live-streaming for 30 days after one violation of its policies prohibiting extremist speech or promoting terrorism. {snip}

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However, the White House continued, “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.”

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Together, the companies said they will continue to work to improve technology to detect and remove terrorist and violent extremist content more effectively and efficiently; develop a protocol for responding to emerging or active events across all stakeholders; will educate the public about the issues; and support research into the impact of online hate on offline discrimination and violence.