Home Office to fund research to help stop terrorist videos being shared online

British prime minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday (24) announced to the UN Security Council a plan to stop sharing of violent terrorist videos on social media platforms.

The Home Office will make £600,000 available to develop an algorithm to improve the way that technology companies detect violent and harmful videos and prevent them being shared by their users.

This announcement follows the Christchurch attack in New Zealand in March, in which 51 people were killed. The attacker live-streamed the video leading to hundreds of versions rapidly spreading across online platforms. Facebook removed more than 1.5 million uploads of the video from their platform.

"We're hoping to deliver the funding by 15 March 2020," a spokesperson told The Register. "That'll be the anniversary of the Christchurch attacks."

Home Secretary Priti Patel MP added: “The sharing of images of terrorist attacks has a devastating effect on the families and loved ones of victims and plays into terrorists’ hands by amplifying their twisted messages.

“The UK has a track record of showing that state of the art technology can be developed, in partnership with industry, at relatively low cost and this is just the latest example of our commitment to working with industry to tackle our shared challenges and respond to the ever evolving threats which we face.”

This announcement also honours the commitments made in the Christchurch Call to Action to tackle terrorist use of the internet, which world leaders signed up to at a summit in Paris in May.