Wounded more in christchurch, new zealand. The motive behind the attack is not in question. The terrorists has written a mixed and the manifesto outlining his White Supremacists, white nationalists, antiimmigrant, antimuslim, and fascist bullies. Beyonds horrifying words, and it shocked the conscience. Shockingly, the terrorist was allowed to live stream on facebook where the gruesome video went undetected initially. Instead, Law Enforcement officials in new zealand had to contact the company and ask that it be removed. New zealand authorities called on all social Media Companies to remove these videos immediately, they were unable to comply. Upan moderators did not keep with the volume of videos being reposted, and their Automated Systems were unable to recognize minor changes in the video, so the video spread online, and is spread around the world. The fact that this happened merely two years after facebook, twitter, google, microsoft, and other Major Tech Companies establish the Global Internet forum to counterterrorism, giftc, is troubling, to say the least. Share best practices to combat the spread of online terrorist content. Back in july 2017, representatives of the giftc briefed the community on this new initiative. I was optimistic about its intentions and goals and acknowledged that members demonstrated the willingness to engage on this issue while others have not, but after a and white supremacist terrorists were able to exploit social media platforms of various ways, we gifct, and of the representatives of gifct briefed to this committee in march after the christchurch massacre. Since then, myself and other members of this committee has asked important questions about the organization and have yet to receive satisfactory answers. Today, i hope to get answers regarding your actual efforts to keep terrorist content of your platform. I want to know how you prevent , like the new zealand attack video, from spreading on your platform again. This committee will continue to engage social Media Companies about the challenges they face in addressing terror content on the platform. In addition to terror content, i want to hear from our panel about how they are working to keep hate speech and harmful misinformation off their platform. I want to be very clear, freerats will respect the speech rights that you find in the First Amendment, but much of the content i am referring to is either not protected speech or violates the social Media Companies own terms of service. We have seen time and time again that social media platforms are vulnerable to being exploited by that actors, including those working out of the hess of foreign governments who seek to so discordw by spreading misinformation. Bigger asonly become we approach the 2020 elections. When he to deal with the persistent problem a. Todaysdamental level, hearing is about transparency. We need to get an understanding of whether and to what is in social Media Companies are incorporating questions of national security, public safety, and integrity of our domestic institutions into their business model. I look forward to having that conversation with the witnesses to our ongoing dialogue on behalf of American People. I think the witnesses for joining us and the members further precipitation. Their participation. For that with that, i with that, i recognize mr. Rogers. This has picked over the last decades in which Foreign Terrorists and global supporters have explored the openness of Online Platforms to radicalize, mobilize, and most their violent messages are these tactics have proved successful, so much so that we are seeing domestic extremists mimic many of the same techniques to gather followers and read hateful, violent propaganda. Steadily onres grow social Media Companies to modify their terms of service to limit posts links to terrorism, violent, criminal activity, and hatefulently the papal rhetor c rhetoric of misinformation. Companies have responded to this pressure in a number of ways, including the creation of the Global Internet forum to Counter Terrorism, or gifct. Also hiring more human content moderators. Todays hearing is also an important opportunity to examine the constitutional limits placed on the government to regulate or restrict freeze the. Advocating violent acts and recruiting terrorists online is a legal, but expressing ones political views, however repugnant they maybe, is protected under the First Amendment. I was deeply concerned to hear policies regarding President Trump and conservative news media. Googles head of responsible recentlyn, jens an jen jeni, said we all got screwed over, the news media that screwed over, everybody got screwed over, so we rapidly more like, how we prevent this from happening again. Jeni wrote Elizabeth Warren wants us to break up google. That is not going to happen. Then they will be charged with preventing another trump situation. She is entitled to her opinion, this report and others like it are a stark reminder of founders have the First Amendment. The video has been removed from youtube, the platform owned by google. Be regulating speech quickly becomes the private sector. Noble intentions also often give issues. It will require enhanced cooperation by the government, industry, individuals, while protecting Constitutional Rights of all americans are i appreciate our witnesses participation today. I hope it will provide Greater Transparency and understanding of todays complex challenge, and with that, hell back, mr. Chairman. Rep. Thompson thank you. Our first witnesses mr. Monica, our third is the third is derek slater, at google, finally, we welcome ms. Midi nadine,ents and, ms. Law school at the i now recognize each witness to summarize the statement for five minutes, beginning with his s. Baker. M ms. Baker thank you, chairman thompson, rating member, and the committee. I am on it of bigger, facebooks Vice President , and i am charged with policy and counterterrorism efforts. Before i joined facebook, i prosecuted federal crimes for seven years on the department of justice. On behalf of our company, i want you for leadership, combating extremism, terrorism, and other threats to our homeland and national security. I do not select to start by saying all of us at facebook stand with the victims, their families, and everyone affected by the recent error attacks, including the horrific violence in sri lanka and new zealand. In the aftermath of these acts, it is even more important to stand together against hate and violence, and we make this a priority in everything that we do at facebook. Content, our view is simple there is no place on facebook for terrorists. To use ourt allowed services under any circumstances. We remove their accounts as soon as we find them. We also remove any content that praises or supports terrorists or their actions, and if we find evidence of imminent harm, we promptly inform authorities. There are three primary ways we are implementing this approach. First with our products, but terrorists andtop propaganda at the gates. Our people, who review policies, and third, our partnerships outside of the us stay which help ahead. For some our product. Facebook has invested significantly in technology to content,tify terrorist including through the use of Artificial Intelligence, but also using other automation and technology for instance, we can now identify violating textual posts in 19 different languages. With the help of these improvements, we have taken action on more than 25 million pieces of terrorist content since the beginning of 2018. Of the content we have removed from facebook, violating our terrorism policies, more than 99 of that is content we found ourselves using our own technical rules, before anyone has reported it to us. Second, our people. We now have more than 30,000 people who are working on safety and security across facebook, across the world, and that is three times as many people as we had dedicated to those efforts in 2017. We also have more than 300 highly trained professionals exclusively or primarily focused on combating terrorist use of our services. Our Team Includes counterterrorism experts, former prosecutors, like myself, former log oarsmen officials, and together, they speak more than 50 languages, and they are able to provide 24hour coverage. Partnerships. In addition to working with thirdparty intelligence providers to more quickly provide terrorist activity on the internet, we work with academics who are studying the latest trends, and government officials. Following the attacks in new zealand, facebook was proud to be a signatory to the christchurch called to action, was with a ninepoint plan for the industry to better combat terrorist attempts to use our services. We also partner across industry. At the chairman and Ranking Member mentioned, in 2016, we launched the Global Internet forum to Counter Terrorism with gifct. The point of that is to share information and to also Share Technology and research to better combat these threats. Through gifct, we have expanded database for companies to share what we call patches, which are basically digital fingerprints of terrorist content so that we can all remove it more quickly and help Smaller Companies do that, too. We have also trained over 110 companies from around the globe in best practices for countering terrorists use of the internetu. , andook took over gifct along with our members, we have this year worked to expand our ability including making test audio to other companies, especially Smaller Companies, and we have also improved our crisis protocol. In the wake of the horrific christchurch attacks, we communicated in real time, and we were a list of hundreds of videos of the attack, despite the fact that bad actors were actively trying to edit the video to upload it to try to circumvent our system. The adversaries are always evolving their tactics, and we have to improve the food want to stay ahead. Will never be perfect, we have made progress, and we are committed to tirelessly combating extremism on our platform. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Kevi chairman thompson, rating member rogers, the committee, thank you for the opportunity. We keep the victims rep. Thompson turn your mic on, please. Can you pull the mic . Sorry. Is that better . Thank you. We keep the victims, their families, and affected communities and christchurch and around the world in our minds as we undertake this important work. We have made this our top measure our efforts. Conversely, hateful contact, deceptive practices detract from the health of the platform. I would like to begin by outlining three key policies. First, twitter has a zerotolerance approach. Individuals may not engage in recruitment or terroris acts. Since 2015, we have suspended more than 1. 5 million accounts for violation of our roles related to terrorism and we have seen more than 90 of the accounts suspended through drastic measures. Accountaction at the creation stage before the account has events we get. The remaining 10 is through a combination of user is an secondly, we prohibit violent extremist groups. These are defined as groups who, whether by statement on or off the platform, promote violence against civilians or use civilians,ainst whatever cause, whatever their ideology. We have taken on 184 groups globally and permanently suspended more than 200 unique accounts. Thirdly, it individual on twitter is not permitted to promote violence or directly affect or threaten people based on characteristics. Where any of these rules are broken, we will take action to remove the content and will permanently remove those who promote terrorism on twitter. As you have heard, twitter is a member of the Global Internet inum of counterterrorism, partnership with facebook, google, and microsoft, as well as providing essential support. We learned a number of lessons from the christchurch attacks. The distribution of media was howfestly different from other terrorist actions worked. After christchurch, an array of individuals online sought to continuously reupload the content created by the attacker, both by video and otherwise. The rot interecosystem presented then and still presents a challenge. Range of thirdparty services were used to share content, that have longs hosted some of the most egregious content online. Video the views of the posted by the christchurch attacker came from verified accounts on twitter, including news organizations and individuals posting the video to condemn the attack. We committed to learning and every into the have a part to play. We should also take some art from the social examples we have seen on twitter around the world, as users come together to challenge hate and challenge division. Hashtags like pray for orlando, or after the christchurch attacks, hello brother, allow for a Better Future for us all. Attack,onths since the , governments, Civil Society, and others are united to commit to a safe, secure, open, and Global Internet. We will take a wide range of actions, including to continue investing in technology, so we can respond as quickly as possible to future instance. As a uniquely open service, twitter enables the clarification and realtime. We proactively use technologies to halt the spread of content propagated through manipulative tactics. We pretty account we prohibit account manipulation, malicious information, and trade accounts. We continue to explore further actions are both policy and object products. We continue to look at what we can do to safeguard the healthy environment on twitter. We look forward to working together on these important issues. Thank you. Rep. Thompson thank you for your testimony. I now recognize mr. Slater to summarize his testimony for five minutes. Mr. Slater chairman thompson, Ranking Member rogers, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I appreciate your leadership of radicalization online and welcome the opportunity to discuss googles work in these areas. Derek slater, and i am the global director of information that google. Google, we believe that the internet has been a force for creativity, learning, and access to information, supporting the free flow of ideas to make the world universally accessible and it useful, yet there have always been legitimate limits to free expression, and this is true both online and off, especially when it comes to terrorism, hate speech, and misinformation. We take these issues seriously and want to be a part of the solution. In my testimony today, i will focus on two areas where we are making progress to protect our users. First, on the enforcement of our policies around terrorism and hate speech, and second, combating this more broadly. On youtube, we have rigorous against and programs those that spread hate or incite violence. We have invested heavily in machines and people. Youtubes enforcement system starts at the point of uploads a video. T is sent for humans to review if they determine it violates our policies, they remove it, and this is amazing digital fingerprint, so it cannot be uploaded again appeared in the First Quarter of 2019 come over 75 of the more than 8 million videos remove were first on by a machine. Ae majority of waste before single view was received. Second, we rely on expert to work on the algorithms. For newctively looks trends on content that might violate our community. We go beyond enforcing our policy by creating programs to create counter speech. Examples of this work include our readers for change program, which supports youtube creators acting as positive role models. Alphabets jigsaw group uses targeted video to disrupt online radicalization. This brought and crosssectional work has led to tangible results. Of 2019,rst quarter you to manually reviewed over one million suspected terrorist videos and found that fewer than 10 from about 90,000, violated our terrorism policy. A comparison, we typically remove between 7 million and 9 million per quarter, a tiny fraction of youtubes total views during this time period. Not stop there. We possibly taking an input and reacting to situations. For example, youtube recently policy,its hate speech alleging that a group is a spear your in order to justify segregation, exclusion, based on qualities like age, gender, race, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Similarly, the recent tragic cause us christchurch drastic measures. We are now reexamining our crisis protocols and also signed the christchurch call to action. We are committed to working with government and experts in Civil Society and economy of to protect our services from being as ordered by that actors, chairmanshipgles in the last year and a half good on the topic of combating this information, we have a natural longterm incentives to prevent anyone from interfering with the integrity of our products. We also recognize that it is critically important to combat this information in the context of democratic elections, when our users seek accurate, trustworthy information that will help them make critical decisions. Better worked algorithms and cover policies and deploying multiple teams that identify and take actions against malicious actors. We have to be mindful that our platforms are reflect a large array of sources. There is no silver bullet, but we will continue to Work Together. In conclusion, we want to do everything we can to ensure users are not exposed to harmful content. These are difficult issues of serious interest. We take them seriously, we want to be responsi