French President Emmanuel Macron (second left) speaks alongside New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) during the May 15, 2019 launch of the “Christchurch Call”, an initiative that aims to curb online extremism, at Élysée Palace in Paris. Ardern pushed for the initiative after a self-proclaimed white supremacist gunned down 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15. The French President and New Zealand Premier hosted several world leaders and leading technology companies during the event, which also ran parallel to Macron’s “Tech for Good” initiative that brought together 80 tech chiefs to discuss how a new technologies could work for the common good.
World leaders and leading technology companies have made a commitment to curb the use of social media by extremist groups for the purpose of terrorism.
The commitment was made during the Christchurch Call to Action meeting on Wednesday (15/5/2019), at the Elysee Palace, Paris, France, which was attended by Vice President Jusuf Kalla. The meeting of heads of state and heads of government was initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern together with digital ministers from a number of developed countries themed "Tech for Humanity".
Those present at the meeting included British Prime Minister Theresa May, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Also present were leaders of digital and social media companies, such as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Kalla stressed that parties could cooperate by preparing a code of ethics, promoting self-regulation and overseeing cyber traffic in every industry. This would help governments contain online terrorism-related content and maintain human rights, including freedom of expression. (Kompas, 16/5/2019)
Kalla said it was Indonesia\'s hope that the Christchurch Call to Action could facilitate all resources that were able to build community awareness, improve community capacity and public-private partnerships in overcoming extremism and violence.
Signatories agreed to cooperate with the industry to develop tools that could detect and remove content related to terrorism. Supervision could be done by humans or artificial intelligence and should be given priority.
AFP/ALAIN JOCARD
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla (left) stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron on the steps of Élysée Palace in Paris as he is welcomed to the “Christchurch Call” launch on May 15, 2019.
Technology companies also need to review the algorithm of each account owner to prevent prohibited content from spreading and promoting what is commonly known as a "credible, positive or contra narrative alternative". They also pledged to jointly invest and expand the Global Internet Forum for Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), which was established by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube in 2017 to prevent the exploitation of their platforms.
The US was not represented at the meeting, with the White House announcing that it would not endorse the initiative but did support the broader aims.
The arrest of terrorists led by Abu Hamzah in Sibolga showed that they were amateurs. They had never experienced jihad such as in the southern Philippines or Afghanistan. However, the danger they posed was more or less the same as those who are trained.
Therefore, the initiatives of Macron and Ardern need to continuously be strengthened, given the fact that Indonesia is often a target of terrorism that has considerable casualties. The initiative has the potential to reduce social media users\' exposure to radicalism, which in turn could halt the spread of radicalism.
