Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to sign an international pledge in Paris Wednesday aimed at getting governments and social media companies working together to curb the spread of violent and extremist content online. In a press release announcing the Paris visit last week, Trudeau voiced his fear that social media platforms increasingly are being weaponized "as tools to incite, publish and broadcast extremist violence and hatred." Video of the attacks was live-streamed for nearly 17 minutes on social media and was subsequently uploaded thousands of times, as social media companies struggled to remove it. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to use her time in Paris to call on governments and social media companies to work together in blocking hateful content. The word "voluntary" is key; the pledge is not expected to include enforcement measures, leaving it up to nations and the social media companies themselves to find ways to restrict the spread of terrorist content online.

Source: CBC News May 14, 2019 23:02 UTC