A Look At Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google’s Plan To Discourage ISIS Recruits

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is trying out a new strategy that it aims to use to prevent radical ISIS propaganda, and in turn discouraging recruits from joining the terrorist organization.

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The initiative is part of a new strategy introduced by Google’s technology incubator known as Jigsaw which came up with words and phrases associated with the terrorist group. The company is taking a different approach where it is focusing on discouraging ISIS recruits rather than focusing on identifying them. Jigsaw plans to plant ads into the search results that are associated with ISIS and the ads will link to YouTube channels that have anti-ISIS content.

“The Redirect Method is at its heart a targeted advertising campaign: Let’s take these individuals who are vulnerable to ISIS’ recruitment messaging and instead show them information that refutes it,”stated Yasmin Green, the head of research and development at Jigsaw.

Some of the YouTube channels where the potential ISIS recruit will be redirected to are filled with testimonials from people formerly involved with ISIS. Jigsaw has been teaming up with Think Tank over the past one year to work on the project which they hope will ultimately discourage aspiring recruits from joining ISIS. Google intends to launch the project which it calls the “redirect method” this month. The project comes in the midst of increased terrorist attacks this year.

“This came out of an observation that there is a lot of online demand for ISIS material, but there are also a lot of credible organic voices online debunking their narratives,” Green revealed.

Jigsaw carried out a pilot test of the project earlier this year and determined that it was a highly effective strategy. The Google division reported that more than 300,000 people visited the anti-ISIS YouTube channels during the two-month period that the project was tested. The phase of the program will target the extremist groups that are planning to recruit more people to the terrorist group in North America.

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