Microsoft announced that it's updating its terms of use to counter "terrorist content," banning any such posts on its services.
The online environment has been a popular venue for numerous activities, and unfortunately terrorist propaganda is among them. Various heavyweight companies have already taken steps to counter online terrorism, and Microsoft is now joining the party.
With a growing number of terrorist attacks worldwide, it has become a priority to find the best way to deal with online content that aims to promote violence or extremism or recruit for terrorist groups.
"We have a responsibility to run our various Internet services so that they are a tool to empower people, not to contribute, however indirectly, to terrible acts," says Microsoft in a new company blog post.
At the same time, Microsoft also highlights its commitment to respecting people's privacy, freedom of expression, and right to information. With this in mind, the company sought to find a solution for addressing online terrorism without sacrificing other values and rights.
Microsoft reckons that every once in a while, terrorist content might make its way to its online services, either posted or shared, and it plans to stop this from occurring.
"Terrorism is one of the truly urgent issues of our time," adds Microsoft. "We are committed to doing our part to help address the use of technology to promote it or to recruit to its causes."
Microsoft will start cracking down in terrorist content on services such as Xbox Live, the consumer version of Outlook, and more. When it comes to its Bing search engine, however, the company says it will only remove links when it's required by local law.
While it plans to fund research for a tool to scan such content and flag worrisome images, video and audio in the future, Microsoft will rely on consumers at first, encouraging them to report questionable content.
The company may also choose to push "positive messaging" in the search results on Bing, displaying such content when someone conducts a search for terrorist-related material.
With more efforts from major technology companies, the spread of terrorist content on social media and other online venues might be curbed, but it remains to be seen if such efforts prove successful.
Twitter, for instance, announced earlier this year that it had closed 125,000 accounts suspected of terrorist ties since mid-2015, but it's still a great challenge to keep up. For each account shut down, more are popping up and it seems like an endless race. Twitter, Microsoft and others will keep fighting the good fight, however, pushing for a cleaner online environment.
