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Google launches £1 million UK 'anti-terror fund'

Tech giant Google has announced that it will give a total of £1 million to fund projects that help counter extremism in the UK.

Distributed in partnership with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a UK-based counter extremist organisation, the funding will be allocated in the form of grants, worth between £2,000 and £200,000. The aim is for the funding to support ‘technology-driven solutions, as well as grassroots efforts such as community youth projects that help build communities and promote resistance to radicalisation’.

Kent Walker, general counsel at Google, wrote in a blog post: “By funding experts like ISD, we hope to support sustainable solutions to extremism both online and offline. We don't have all the answers, but we're committed to playing our part. We're looking forward to helping bring new ideas and technologies to life.”

The announcement comes on the same day as Prime Minister Theresa May urged the UN General Assembly in New York to develop new technology to stop terrorist material appearing on the web automatically.

Google’s announcement also coincided with social media company Twitter stating that it had taken down 300,000 terror accounts in the first six months of the year as its own AI tools improve.

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