Ardern says Christchurch Call anti-online hate project gets new tech investments

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday announced a new research initiative under a global project aimed at tackling online hate set up in the wake of a mass killing by a white supremacist in Christchurch in 2019.

Ardern said in a statement that as part of the Christchurch Call initiative, New Zealand, the United States, Twitter and Microsoft will invest an undisclosed sum in developing new technology aimed at helping researchers understand how algorithms affect internet users' experiences.

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Partners in the initiative will work together to build and test a set of privacy-enhancing technologies that, once proven, could form the basis for infrastructure to support the independent study of the impacts of algorithms, according to the statement.

"This initiative won't tell us all we need to know about the outcomes algorithms are driving online, it will help us better access data so researchers can answer these very questions," the statement said.

It said, however, many online service providers remain outside the Call, calling on some unidentified firms unwilling to meet the commitments to join.