Counter fire, credits: FB, Twitter and Google

Sometimes advertising goes beyond just a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative; it becomes a tool to fight anti-social elements and curb their hate speeches through intelligently designed counter-narratives

Being a digital giant not only comes in handy to dig out the best and the most classified information that may be helpful for wellbeing of the people, but can also act as an active platform to create a movement that will help make the world a better place to live.

There is no uncertainty in the fact that Google and Facebook have earned enormous public insight and constructed a well-defined database over the years. The digital giants are using their power to formulate plans and fight anti-social elements like the Islamic State. Google and Facebook are doing all it takes to curb the hate speech and recruiting by these agencies online.

Facebook is in the process of allocating advertising credits as high as a thousand US dollars to all the users, who are willing to speak against terrorist propaganda and fight terrorism. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg feels that the best antidote to hate is tolerance and thinks that allocating free advertising credits will come a long way in countering terror and hate speech by activists like Arbi el Ayachi, who is known for his video on disputing anti-Muslim sentiments.

Dubbed as ‘Counter Speech’, the movement by Facebook will incentivise users who actively fight extremist views with Facebook posts and photos. Reports by The Telegraph suggest that Facebook is apparently working alongside the US State Department and consultancy firms to get university students to participate in the movement.

In a similar movement, Twitter had also been a major part of the anti-terror movement this month, as it identified and froze close to 1.25 lakh twitter accounts linked to the Islamic State and other terror groups.Simultaneously, Google has started a similar movement by displaying anti-terror ad links to would-be jihadis. Wondering how would Google identify would-be jihadis? Analytics! Google is smarter than you think it is.

Besides the very fact that terrorists groups are becoming increasingly active, another possible circumstance that might seemed to have triggered this movement is the Paris terrorist attack in November, last year.This counter-narrative movement by digital giants can prove to be a major tool in weeding out terrorism from the world.

This movement is a proof on how we are rapidly heading to an information-lead world. Also, the world needs more movements like this to restore peace and prosperity. We are looking forward to the campaigns by Facebook and Google; we hope they are as brilliant and effective as their brand adverts. About the initiative: way to go Facebook, Twitter and Google, keep triggering movements like this.