Tech-giant Microsoft steps in to combat terrorism

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Tech-giant Microsoft has now braced itself to tackle the never-ending global issue of terrorism. With the internet proving to be a major conduit for terrorist groups to spread violence, Microsoft has reacted to this matter of concern.

In a blog post, Microsoft explained that its services are meant to empower people and not contribute to terrible acts. The company stressed on promoting values such as privacy, freedom of expression and the right to access information.

"Terrorism is one of the truly urgent issues of our time," said Microsoft. "We are committed to doing our part to help address the use of technology to promote it or to recruit to its causes."

“We are amending our terms of use – which already prohibit hate speech and advocacy of violence against others – to specifically prohibit the posting of terrorist content on our hosted consumer services,” the company said.

“There is no silver bullet that will stop terrorist use of the Internet,” Microsoft's vice president Steven Crown told a special Security Council debate on counter-terrorism.

Microsoft will continue using its notice and takedown process for removing prohibited content. Microsoft said it would remove links to terrorist-related content from Bing search results when the takedown would be required of search providers under local law.

"We will remove links to terrorist-related content from Bing only when that takedown is required of search providers under local law," said Microsoft.

The company also has plans to work with non-governmental organisations to offer alternative narratives in its search results.

Microsoft is one of the last major tech companies to issue anti terrorism policies .Twitter, Facebook and others in recent months have taken steps to crack down on the use of their sites for terrorist activity, hateful speech or content promoting violence.