CEP’s eGlyph technology can quickly and accurately detect known extremist content for removal
The Counter Extremism Project issued the following statement in response to the terror attack on London Bridge and at the nearby Borough Market:
(New York, NY) – The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) strongly condemns last night’s horrific vehicle and knife attacks in London that claimed the lives of seven people and wounded dozens more, and applauds Prime Minister May’s call for a crackdown on extremist ideology that is freely being espoused on the Internet and social media platforms. There should be no radical extremist hatred on the Internet in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.
The attacks, which began when three assailants used a van to mow down pedestrians on London Bridge and ended after the three terrorists were killed while slashing people with knives at the nearby Borough Market, was the third terrorist attack in London in the past two months and the second to use a vehicle as an instrument of terror. Meaningful and immediate action is clearly needed to eliminate the radicalizing extremist content that is easily available and pervasive online. If not, these outrageous acts of violence against the public will continue as terrorists use Internet-based social media and communications platforms to direct, coordinate, and inspire attacks.
Prime Minister May said: “First, while the recent attacks are not connected by common networks, they are connected in one important sense. They are bound together by the single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division, and promotes sectarianism…We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is exactly what the Internet and the big companies that provide Internet-based services provide.” Several weeks ago, May asked fellow G7 members at a meeting in Italy to unite to pressure tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter to do much more to remove “harmful” extremist content, warning that the global battle against terrorism is increasingly moving online. In May, the U.K. government released a report noting that “nowhere near enough is being done” by companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others to combat the proliferation of extremist content online.
In June 2016, CEP announced eGLYPH, a new technology developed with Dartmouth College Computer Science Professor Dr. Hany Farid, the world’s leading authority on digital forensics. The technology is capable of detecting known extremist images, video, and audio files for immediate and accurate removal. The eGLYPH technology is based on existing “robust hashing” algorithms, which Dr. Farid developed almost a decade ago and which is widely used today to identify and flag images of child pornography online.
To learn more about eGLYPH, please click here.
To explore CEP’s report, Vehicles as Weapons of Terror, please click here.
To explore CEP’s report, Terror Targets in the West: Where and Why, please click here.
To explore CEP’s report, United Kingdom: Extremism and Counter-Extremism, please click here.