Meta has brought a new technology to the world which is an open source software tool called ‘Hasher-Matcher-Actioner’. Abbreviated as ‘HMA’. The company owned by social media Facebook sees this tool with artificial intelligence as a perfect tool to fight terrorism.
Meta will chair the Steering Board of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) to be held in coming January. This non-profit organization was established in 2017. Meta has already announced the launch of HMA as one of the founding members of the organization.
It is said that, through this HMA tool, a ‘digital footprint’ will be created in advance for content that may be ‘terrorism related’. Then whenever such content is exposed, the HMA tool can automatically identify and remove that content by matching it with the previous digital footprint.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs of Meta, said the HMA tool will help organizations identify and remove content (photos, videos, etc.) associated with extremism on a large scale. Apart from militancy, the tool will also be able to detect and remove various types of criminal and abusive content, including child sexual harassment content.
GIFCT member organizations and members exchange such digital footprints among themselves, Meta said. As a result, the more organizations involved in the HMA tool, the more effectively countering extremism through social media can be achieved.
According to the data, Meta spent about 5 billion US dollars on cyber security and protection worldwide last year. Besides, about 40 thousand workers of Meta are engaged in this task.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, said that less than three years ago, there were 10-11 hateful content for every 10,000 content. Now that’s one to two. Facebook blocks 10 lakh fake accounts every day to prevent spread of false information.
Nick expects that more and more institutions and organizations, especially small organizations that cannot afford to invest large amounts of resources, will use the HMA tool.