TO TRY to deradicalise extremists, Facebook is borrowing methods akin to those used to spread radicalism online.
The project was led by a London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. It scanned far-right and Islamist Facebook pages, looking for hate speech.
When suitable candidates were identified, one of 11 鈥渋ntervention providers鈥� contacted the profile owners on Facebook Messenger. The aim was to 鈥渨alk them back from the edge, potentially, of violence鈥�, says Sasha Havlicek, the think tank鈥檚 CEO. The intervention providers were either former extremists, trained counsellors or survivors of terrorism.
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However, only eight of the 569 people contacted showed signs of the intervention being successful.
The UK government has repeatedly called on tech firms to do more to fight online extremism. It is also considering an 鈥渆xtremism tax鈥� to cover the rising costs of police work related to online radicalisation.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淔acebook in fight against extremism鈥�
