The U.S. government have urged online media giants such as Facebook and Google to join them in the war against ‘extremism’ and ‘radicalization’ by toughening their censorship rules when dealing with online users harbouring ‘extremist views’. The Justice Department met with Facebook Inc, Twitter, and Google – reaching out to them for help following the governments failed attempts to thwart ISIS’ presence online. Yahoo News reports: The federal government is not best placed to counter extremist online recruitment efforts with messaging of its own, said George Selim, director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office that coordinates the government’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) activities. The goal now, he said, is to help “communities and young people to amplify their own messages.” Those messages stem from so-called “counter-narrative” programs underway at schools and community groups that have varying degrees of government support, according to government officials and private sector experts. Past campaigns by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to thwart extremist propaganda globally were widely regarded as too reliant on fear-based rhetoric and graphic imagery to be effective. But whether the new joint effort with the private sector will fare better remains unclear, say experts in countering extremism. The Obama [...]