Microsoft has vowed to crackdown on content shared by terrorists, or supporters of terrorists, when that material is viewed as dangerous. The company will implement this crackdown by banning anyone from its services who disseminates material supporting terrorist groups, or people endorsing such groups within consumer services such as Xbox Live or Outlook webmail.

In a blog post Microsoft explained its move towards tighter censorship by saying, “The Internet has become the primary medium for sharing ideas and communicating with one another, and the events of the past few months are a strong reminder that the Internet can be used for the worst reasons imaginable.”

If you’re a user of these services you should remember that joking about terrorism has gotten people into hot water on several occasions in the past, and so expect to get booted off for idle chat promoting, endorsing or referencing anything from Islamic extremism to the more excessive end of the pro-life movement.

Microsoft did, however, state that its search engine Bing is not included in the crackdown, because, “Our Bing search engine strives to be an unbiased information and action tool, presenting links to all relevant information available on the Internet,” Microsoft said in a blog post. Bing is not a content provider of course, and Microsoft says it will remove links to ‘dangerous’ material only when sharing that material is a crime under local law.

What counts as terrorism?

So what is an act of terrorism? After all, a bunch of 12 year-olds regularly splattering the windows of houses in the neighborhood could be construed as an act of terrorism.  Microsoft admits that this is a grey area, but provides a list of organizations one might not want to encourage online by sharing their content.

Microsoft has also given the public the chance to report anyone endorsing terrorism or sharing ‘dangerous’ material on their report page here. At the same time, Microsoft said it is also investing in better tools to scan and flag dangerous material in the form of pictures, audio and video.

Photo credit: Espino Family via Flickr