New York, NY, February 9, 2016 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) applauds Jack Dorsey and Twitter for the company’s efforts to combat violent extremism, and we congratulate it on the formation of the Trust & Safety Council, an important step forward to strike the right balance between fighting abuse and hate, and protecting free speech.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:
ADL has been tracking, exposing, and responding to hate online since 1985, and we’re honored to be one of the inaugural members of the Twitter Trust & Safety Council announced today. Fighting cyberhate has never been more critical. As the world has seen, extremists like ISIS are using social media as a primary tool to recruit followers and incite terrorism.
For our part, monitoring channels like Twitter and responding to hate online is one leg of the stool. We take that responsibility seriously and have established best practices for countering online hate that have been endorsed by the leading social media platforms. But we also need to make every effort to grasp how terror networks utilize social media platforms in order to find creative and effective approaches to help mitigate the threat, even as we work to educate our youth to foster tolerance in society.
Our special thanks to Patricia Cartes, Head of Global Policy Outreach, who spearheaded the creation of the council.