Facebook is giving free advertising credits to online activists who are helping them to prevent hateful online speech. This is a part of their new program in France, Germany and Europe.
The program is called Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI), which is Berlin-based. It has given more than $11,152.00 credits in advertising to the groups who are participating on the program.
On Wednesday, the social media giant is planning to increase the rewards to get more groups, ranging from activists to think tanks to tech companies. The company said that they will add another $1.1 million worth of advertising credits to the program, Quartz reported.
On the other hand, the video streaming giant launched YouTube Heroes Program in their hopes to stop hate speech, as well as cyber bullying and sexually explicit content. The "heroes" are the ones who can moderate and flag abusive videos for the YouTube staffs to review.
YouTube will provide perks to the volunteers, which include moderating tools and ability to directly contact a YouTube staff. While the program allows the moderators to flag as much content as they can, the company still has the final say in what videos are to be removed, CNET reported.
Some are saying that the program is just making people provide free labor since what the participants can only get are perks. Critics are worried that Google, YouTube's parent company is using its popularity for their own gain.
Meanwhile, Facebook and YouTube are not the only tech companies who are trying to end hate speech. Twitter is said to remove over 360,000 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-related accounts from its site. To discourage possible ISIL recruits, a tech incubator called Jigsaw, which is also under Google, is testing counter-terrorism videos and advertisements.
