Representatives from Google, Facebook, and Twitter on Friday appeared before an Australian security committee as a united front, spruiking the idea that they’re all working together to thwart nefarious activity, such as violent extremist material, from proliferating their respective platforms.
The trio told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security as part of its inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia that the effort is a joint one and that the best way forward was to not actually legislate a ban of all mentions of content deemed inappropriate.
“We all know combating terrorism and extremism is a continuous challenge. And unless we can completely eliminate hate and intolerance from society, there’s going to be hate and intolerance online,” Facebook Australia’s head of policy Josh Machin said. “It’s also a shared challenge between governments, industry experts, academia, civil society, and the media.”
