New tool to help smaller online platforms

In a time of rapid technological change, the Christchurch Call Commitments remain relevant for the emerging and persistent challenges for smaller online service providers. Smaller providers may not have the necessary resources, systems and tools to effectively respond to crisis incidents and moderate content, which leaves them at risk of being exploited as platforms for terrorist and violent extremist content.

In 2022, Call Leaders pledged to ensure shared industry tools remain at the leading edge of technology and are effective in responding to adversarial tactics and shifts.

Altitude(external link) is a free, open source new tool to help small and medium sized online platforms protect their communities from terrorist and violent extremist content. Developed by Google’s Jigsaw unit and Tech Against Terrorism, in collaboration with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), Altitude provides online platforms a single elevated view of potential terrorist and violent extremist content on their sites, helping them to triage and remove the content.

Altitude is available for free, and is now open for testing. Interested platforms are encouraged to contact altitude@google.com to become testers and further inform the tool’s development.

The Christchurch Call Community is committed to preventing terrorist and violent extremist exploitation of smaller online service providers where content moderation is challenging due to limited resources. Altitude is a valuable new addition to the suite of free, integrated tools available to online service providers, including the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform(external link) and Hasher-Matcher-Actioner(external link).

More information about Altitude is available at altitude.withgoogle.com(external link).

The Christchurch Call has published a report(external link) on the supporting smaller online service providers, calling on continued investment from the Call’s diverse and multistakeholder Community to increase awareness and implementation of these tools.