New York, NY, August 1, 2017…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed progress announced by Google and YouTube in blocking and removing extremist content on YouTube. Google recently started using machine learning technology, which has allowed it to remove more than 75 percent of violent extremism videos during the past month.

ADL is a select contributing member of YouTube’s Trusted Flagger program, created in 2012 to enable organizations to notify the platform of content that violates their community guidelines. Google is a longstanding member of ADL’s Silicon Valley Anti-Cyberhate Working Group.

“The fight against terrorist use of online resources and cyberhate has become one of the most daunting challenges in modern history,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Google has been a leader in this area from the beginning. The reality is extremists and terrorists continue to migrate to and exploit various other social media platforms. We hope that those platforms can learn from and emulate what YouTube is doing to proactively identify and remove extremist content.”

As one of the founding members of ADL’s Anti-Cyberhate Working Group, established almost a decade ago, Google has brought a wealth of knowledge, capabilities and citizenship to the table. It was clear even then that neither technology nor human intervention alone could solve the problem of online hate. Google’s commitment to advancing the needed technology and collaborative mechanism for public and civil partners has led the way in many areas.

ADL has continued to succeed in fighting cyberhate and online threats by instituting a similar technology-human approach.  In a collaborative effort, ADL has brought together world class subject experts and state of the art technology that, when combined, could unleash new and exciting potentials for improving the internet environment and our world.

ADL applauds the work of Google and others who continue to seek solutions as committed community members.