Senior
White House officials and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement figures
will meet with Silicon Valley executives on Friday to discuss the use of
social media by militant groups, sources familiar with the meeting said
on Thursday.
In an
escalation of pressure on technology firms to do more to combat online
Islamic militant propaganda from groups like Islamic State, the meeting
follows attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California that focused
increased attention on the role played by social media sites such as
Twitter(TWTR.N), YouTube and Facebook(FB.O).
Invited
participants include White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough,
presidential counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, Attorney General
Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, National Intelligence Director
James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers, one of
the sources said.
A source familiar
with the meeting said it would focus on social media content, not
encrypted communications, another topic of discussion between Silicon
Valley and the White House.
Twitter last week
updated its policies for policing its content to explicitly prohibit
"hateful conduct." Other websites have similarly updated and clarified
their abuse policies within the past 18 months.
The
meeting's priorities, outlined by an agenda circulated with
participants, include how to make it harder for militants to recruit and
mobilize followers on social media as well as helping ordinary users
create, publish and amplify content that can undercut groups like
Islamic State.
According to the
agenda, the meeting also will touch on how technology can be used to
disrupt paths to violent radicalization and identify recruitment
patterns, and how to make it easier for law enforcement and intelligence
agencies to identify militant operatives.
Twitter
Inc confirmed that it will have at least one representative attending
the meeting but said its CEO Jack Dorsey will not be participating.
The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters
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