Video-conferencing platform Zoom has joined a counterterrorism organization formed by major U.S. tech companies including Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, and Microsoft Corp, the group said on Wednesday.
GIFCT, which has said it wants to broaden its member companies, added five new platforms this year including home-rental giant Airbnb, social network Tumblr and online publishing platform WordPress. It now has 18 members and said it plans for more companies to join in 2022. The group manages a hash-sharing database, where member companies can share"hashes," unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other companies can use these hashes to identify the same content on their sites and review or remove the material.
These ranged from abuses like"zoombombing," where uninvited users crashed others' calls to share hate speech and racist, violent or pornographic content, to decisions like its cancellation of a virtual event featuring Leila Khaled, a member of a Palestinian group on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations.