The social network has announced the expansion of its 'Redirect Initiative' to the UK, as well as Pakistan. It replaces the top search result on hate or extremism-based searches with a link to help and support on how to move away from hate and violence.
Research has shown that challenging violent and extremist views with positive counter-speech is one of the most effective ways to combat such attitudes and use empathy and alternative perspectives to respond to extremist views, according to Facebook.
The tool has already been rolled out in Australia, the US, Germany and Indonesia and is the latest move by Facebook's parent company Meta to improve online safety amid ongoing scrutiny of the sector from regulators and policymakers around the world.
The social media firm said the counter-speech process was most effective when the counter-speech comes from credible voices and so has partnered with charity Exit UK for the UK version of the tool.
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