White House to work together with tech companies to counter ISIS’ online propaganda

The White House plans to counter Islamic States’ online propaganda by seeking tech help from Silicon Valley.

Top Internet and tech companies will get together on Friday to discuss measures to use technology against the extremist group which has a strong online presence. The plan is to disrupt ISIS’ efforts to radicalise people online and encourage violence.

The Associated Press obtained the meeting agenda which reveals FBI Director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, among the people who will attend the meeting. US President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser is also expected to be present there.

US officials are believed to use the meeting, to be held in San Jose, California, as a platform to discuss how tech companies and the government "help others to create, publish, and amplify alternative content that would undercut” ISIS, the agenda reveal.

According to a senior Obama administration official, it is important for the government to work together with the tech industry. "The Administration has been clear about the importance of government and industry working together to confront terrorism but we do not have any specific meetings to announce or preview at this time," the official told CBS News.

Twitter, a social media platform where ISIS has prominent presence, recently revised its rules of conduct to prevent abusive behaviour by its users. “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease,” the news rules say.

“We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.”