PARIS, May 14 (KUNA) -- France on Wednesday will host a major conference of political leaders and captains of the Internet business to discuss ways of eliminating terrorism, extremism and hate speech from Internet sites, President Emmanuel Macron's office said Tuesday.
The conference, dubbed the "Tech for Good Summit" will include a number of world leaders and at least 80 influential figures from the digital world, including several from the world of social media.
Macron will co-preside the event with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the two leaders will issue "the call from Christchurch" urging the Internet executives to work "to eliminate terrorism and violent extremism" from the Internet.
France and New Zealand as co-presidents have suffered harshly from terrorist attack in recent years, with 250 people killed in France since January 2015.
A number of coordinated and lone-wolf attacks against French targets were claimed by so-called Islamic State terror group.
More recently, an attack by a right-wing extremist against two New Zealand mosques left 51 dead and many wounded and thus prompted "the call of Christchurch," the city where the mosques were attacked.
Many terror attacks have either been announced or promoted and claimed on Internet sites and there are regular incitements to terrorism and hate on sites.
The aim of the summit Wednesday is to see to what degree these violent posts can be quickly located and banned, without infringing individual liberties and freedom of expression.
High-level political delegations and leaders are expected at the summit, including King Abdullah of Jordan, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a number of other senior officials and leaders from Europe and beyond.
The European Commission will be represented by President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The political participants will be joined by several dozen Internet leaders, including from Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, as well as Google and Youtube and a host of other participants in the sector. (end) jk.ibi