Jigsaw by Google Releases Altitude as Open-Source to Aid Digital Platforms in Eliminating Extremist Material

The Google incubator arm, Jigsaw, has made its anti-terrorism software public, offering a crucial solution for smaller firms aiming to tackle the issue of extremist content on their platforms.

While larger technology entities like Meta, X, and Google have the capability to filter out harmful or illegal materials effectively, the smaller organizations lack the resources needed for extensive content moderation. This becomes an urgent issue with laws like the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Europe and specific regulations against terrorism-related content putting immense pressure on companies to rapidly remove such materials.

Jigsaw, originally named Google Ideas before being rebranded in 2016, dedicates its efforts to creating innovative solutions that address crucial societal problems, including the spread of misinformation, censorship, and the proliferation of toxic and extremist content online. In a significant move last November, Jigsaw unveiled Altitude, a groundbreaking tool for online content moderation. Altitude aids moderators by consolidating flagged content from various third-party databases into a singular platform, streamlining the verification process.

Developed alongside Tech Against Terrorism, an initiative of the United Nations’ Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) started in 2017, and the industry-led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), Altitude stands as a collaborative endeavour aimed at curbing terrorists’ exploitation of the internet. This partnership underscores a collective commitment to create effective tools for eliminating terrorist content online.

Now, after nine months, Jigsaw is transitioning the stewardship of Altitude to Tech Against Terrorism for ongoing development and support. The source code has also been made available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, granting companies the freedom to host the tool themselves and allowing for broad inspection of its design.

Understanding Altitude’s Functionality

Altitude utilizes data from “trusted” databases, including GIFCT for leveraging proprietary information towards automated moderation tools, and Tech Against Terrorism’s own Terrorist Content Analytics Platform. These trusted sources earmark and flag content, facilitating its swift identification and review by moderators.

By integrating these resources, Altitude provides a unified interface for the identification of what it terms “terrorist and violent extremist content” (TVEC), encouraging rapid response by platform moderators to comply with legal obligations. Importantly, the system emphasizes human judgment by flagging content for review rather than automatic removal.

Though Jigsaw and Tech Against Terrorism have not disclosed the specific platforms utilizing Altitude during its pilot stage, its potential applications are vast, ranging from messaging services and social networks to video hosting websites and online forums.

In a recent blog post, Jigsaw highlighted insights garnered from discussions with platform leaders across various services. These conversations revealed a spectrum of readiness and resources among platforms for managing TVEC, not always correlating directly with the size of the organization or its user base. They also illustrated a potential pathway for platforms, particularly those with limited resources, to embark on addressing online harms through dedicated, external tools like Altitude.

As an open-source initiative, Altitude is accessible for integration by any company, with the added advantage of customized support through collaboration with Tech Against Terrorism. Looking ahead, the development team is considering the incorporation of specialized databases and expanding the tool’s language capabilities beyond English.