Tag Archives: Europe

Impact and adventure: revisiting France’s Google Impact Challenge

Last year Google.org launched its first French Google Impact Challenge, a national competition for nonprofit organisations that use digital technologies to scale their work in the country.

We received hundreds of ideas from non-profits across France and were blown away by the creativity, passion, and innovation we saw in the submissions. After public voting, ten French organisations stood out and were awarded at an emotional ceremony at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each received funding (500,000 euros for each of the four big winners, 200,000 euros for each finalist) and a tailor-made mentoring program, supported by Googler volunteers, with the support of the Social Factory and Invest &+.

A year later, we’re looking back at the progress of ten organisations with impressive goals and even more impressive results. We wondered: have they managed to change scale? Have their projects have come to fruition? What additional impact have they had?
Making Sense
MakeSense: meeting with volunteers and social entrepreneurs

We were not disappointed. Each organisation reported that their projects have taken off in three key areas with Google’s support: adding new staff members, benefiting from mentoring to build technical tools and building credibility to secure new funding or partners.

Progress report...

  • 1001 Fontaines, an entrepreneur-driven network of water purification stations in rural areas to give people access to clean water, has opened 10 new water treatment plants, giving access to safe drinking water to an additional 20,000 people

  • Libraries Without Borders has grown from 15 to 60 employees and will deploy 70 mobile media libraries in the field before the end of the year, compared to just four one year ago. This project will give access to the Internet, books and educational resources to populations around the globe in the greatest need.

  • Jaccede, whose mission was to crowdsource accessibility ratings of public spaces for people with physical disabilities has designed, developed and launched a new simplified platform that lists more than 13,000 additional places.

  • Ticket for Change was able to hire one person to disseminate its new online support program for entrepreneurship, and gained credibility with funders and partners.
    The donation agency, which allows Internet users to offer essential products to the most deprived persons during their online shopping, has established partnerships with major players in e-commerce.

  • La Banque Alimentaire du Rhône, whose mission was to enable retailers to donate unsold food to nonprofits, has convinced 50 traders to join its ProxiDon platform, of which 255 baskets have been offered since last June. That’s nearly 10,000 meals distributed to people in precarious situations.

  • MakeSense, which connects social entrepreneurs and volunteers, has seen its team grow from 35 to 65 employees and is in the process of raising funds in the United States.

  • My Human Kit has grown from a team of volunteers to four full-time employees working to connect people with disabilities with low-cost, open-source prosthetics. Their growing community continues to offer solutions to people with disabilities who want to create their own technical assistance.

  • Voxe.org’s mission to re-engage young people in politics now has two employees and launched the successful WhatTheVoxe newsletter.

  • Y Generation Education, through Jackie, Y Generation’s sponsor at Google, the team met Renan, a data science expert, who joined the organisation in June as head of technology. They have concentrated their efforts on Brazil, where recruitment and training issues for "invisible" young people are key, and have adapted their platform by making it even more entertaining.

Tickets for Change
Ticket for Change: at a training session to help people change move from ideas to action

The adventure continues...

During the exchanges we had with the associations throughout the year, we saw how important it was for them to have consistent support that allows them to grow, to consolidate their strategic plans and to continue to improve their technical tools.

With continued work ahead of them, Google.org answered the call. Each winning organisation will receive a supplementary grant of $ 50,000 and continue in the mentoring program. This allocation will allow, for example, the Banque Alimentaire du Rhône to finance an electric vehicle to collect donations and bring them to associations; For My Human Kit, it will secure an additional employee for the year to come.

The Google Impact challenges have been run elsewhere in Europe too, including in Germany and the UK. These awards recognise entrepreneurial organisations who think on an ambitious scale and have a healthy disregard for the impossible and we look forward to seeing what they do next.

Impact and adventure: revisiting France’s Google Impact Challenge

Last year Google.org launched its first French Google Impact Challenge, a national competition for nonprofit organisations that use digital technologies to scale their work in the country.

We received hundreds of ideas from non-profits across France and were blown away by the creativity, passion, and innovation we saw in the submissions. After public voting, ten French organisations stood out and were awarded at an emotional ceremony at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each received funding (500,000 euros for each of the four big winners, 200,000 euros for each finalist) and a tailor-made mentoring program, supported by Googler volunteers, with the support of the Social Factory and Invest &+.

A year later, we’re looking back at the progress of ten organisations with impressive goals and even more impressive results. We wondered: have they managed to change scale? Have their projects have come to fruition? What additional impact have they had?
Making Sense
MakeSense: meeting with volunteers and social entrepreneurs

We were not disappointed. Each organisation reported that their projects have taken off in three key areas with Google’s support: adding new staff members, benefiting from mentoring to build technical tools and building credibility to secure new funding or partners.

Progress report...

  • 1001 Fontaines, an entrepreneur-driven network of water purification stations in rural areas to give people access to clean water, has opened 10 new water treatment plants, giving access to safe drinking water to an additional 20,000 people

  • Libraries Without Borders has grown from 15 to 60 employees and will deploy 70 mobile media libraries in the field before the end of the year, compared to just four one year ago. This project will give access to the Internet, books and educational resources to populations around the globe in the greatest need.

  • Jaccede, whose mission was to crowdsource accessibility ratings of public spaces for people with physical disabilities has designed, developed and launched a new simplified platform that lists more than 13,000 additional places.

  • Ticket for Change was able to hire one person to disseminate its new online support program for entrepreneurship, and gained credibility with funders and partners.
    The donation agency, which allows Internet users to offer essential products to the most deprived persons during their online shopping, has established partnerships with major players in e-commerce.

  • La Banque Alimentaire du Rhône, whose mission was to enable retailers to donate unsold food to nonprofits, has convinced 50 traders to join its ProxiDon platform, of which 255 baskets have been offered since last June. That’s nearly 10,000 meals distributed to people in precarious situations.

  • MakeSense, which connects social entrepreneurs and volunteers, has seen its team grow from 35 to 65 employees and is in the process of raising funds in the United States.

  • My Human Kit has grown from a team of volunteers to four full-time employees working to connect people with disabilities with low-cost, open-source prosthetics. Their growing community continues to offer solutions to people with disabilities who want to create their own technical assistance.

  • Voxe.org’s mission to re-engage young people in politics now has two employees and launched the successful WhatTheVoxe newsletter.

  • Y Generation Education, through Jackie, Y Generation’s sponsor at Google, the team met Renan, a data science expert, who joined the organisation in June as head of technology. They have concentrated their efforts on Brazil, where recruitment and training issues for "invisible" young people are key, and have adapted their platform by making it even more entertaining.

Tickets for Change
Ticket for Change: at a training session to help people change move from ideas to action

The adventure continues...

During the exchanges we had with the associations throughout the year, we saw how important it was for them to have consistent support that allows them to grow, to consolidate their strategic plans and to continue to improve their technical tools.

With continued work ahead of them, Google.org answered the call. Each winning organisation will receive a supplementary grant of $ 50,000 and continue in the mentoring program. This allocation will allow, for example, the Banque Alimentaire du Rhône to finance an electric vehicle to collect donations and bring them to associations; For My Human Kit, it will secure an additional employee for the year to come.

The Google Impact challenges have been run elsewhere in Europe too, including in Germany and the UK. These awards recognise entrepreneurial organisations who think on an ambitious scale and have a healthy disregard for the impossible and we look forward to seeing what they do next.

Impact and adventure: revisiting France’s Google Impact Challenge

Last year Google.org launched its first French Google Impact Challenge, a national competition for nonprofit organisations that use digital technologies to scale their work in the country.

We received hundreds of ideas from non-profits across France and were blown away by the creativity, passion, and innovation we saw in the submissions. After public voting, ten French organisations stood out and were awarded at an emotional ceremony at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each received funding (500,000 euros for each of the four big winners, 200,000 euros for each finalist) and a tailor-made mentoring program, supported by Googler volunteers, with the support of the Social Factory and Invest &+.

A year later, we’re looking back at the progress of ten organisations with impressive goals and even more impressive results. We wondered: have they managed to change scale? Have their projects have come to fruition? What additional impact have they had?
Making Sense
MakeSense: meeting with volunteers and social entrepreneurs

We were not disappointed. Each organisation reported that their projects have taken off in three key areas with Google’s support: adding new staff members, benefiting from mentoring to build technical tools and building credibility to secure new funding or partners.

Progress report...

  • 1001 Fontaines, an entrepreneur-driven network of water purification stations in rural areas to give people access to clean water, has opened 10 new water treatment plants, giving access to safe drinking water to an additional 20,000 people

  • Libraries Without Borders has grown from 15 to 60 employees and will deploy 70 mobile media libraries in the field before the end of the year, compared to just four one year ago. This project will give access to the Internet, books and educational resources to populations around the globe in the greatest need.

  • Jaccede, whose mission was to crowdsource accessibility ratings of public spaces for people with physical disabilities has designed, developed and launched a new simplified platform that lists more than 13,000 additional places.

  • Ticket for Change was able to hire one person to disseminate its new online support program for entrepreneurship, and gained credibility with funders and partners.
    The donation agency, which allows Internet users to offer essential products to the most deprived persons during their online shopping, has established partnerships with major players in e-commerce.

  • La Banque Alimentaire du Rhône, whose mission was to enable retailers to donate unsold food to nonprofits, has convinced 50 traders to join its ProxiDon platform, of which 255 baskets have been offered since last June. That’s nearly 10,000 meals distributed to people in precarious situations.

  • MakeSense, which connects social entrepreneurs and volunteers, has seen its team grow from 35 to 65 employees and is in the process of raising funds in the United States.

  • My Human Kit has grown from a team of volunteers to four full-time employees working to connect people with disabilities with low-cost, open-source prosthetics. Their growing community continues to offer solutions to people with disabilities who want to create their own technical assistance.

  • Voxe.org’s mission to re-engage young people in politics now has two employees and launched the successful WhatTheVoxe newsletter.

  • Y Generation Education, through Jackie, Y Generation’s sponsor at Google, the team met Renan, a data science expert, who joined the organisation in June as head of technology. They have concentrated their efforts on Brazil, where recruitment and training issues for "invisible" young people are key, and have adapted their platform by making it even more entertaining.

Tickets for Change
Ticket for Change: at a training session to help people change move from ideas to action

The adventure continues...

During the exchanges we had with the associations throughout the year, we saw how important it was for them to have consistent support that allows them to grow, to consolidate their strategic plans and to continue to improve their technical tools.

With continued work ahead of them, Google.org answered the call. Each winning organisation will receive a supplementary grant of $ 50,000 and continue in the mentoring program. This allocation will allow, for example, the Banque Alimentaire du Rhône to finance an electric vehicle to collect donations and bring them to associations; For My Human Kit, it will secure an additional employee for the year to come.

The Google Impact challenges have been run elsewhere in Europe too, including in Germany and the UK. These awards recognise entrepreneurial organisations who think on an ambitious scale and have a healthy disregard for the impossible and we look forward to seeing what they do next.

Dutch datacenter is first for Google: powered by 100% renewable energy from day one

This afternoon we announced that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations — including both our data centers and offices. This is a huge milestone for us globally and here in Europe, a region that’s truly leading the way for renewables. We’re quite proud that our commitments have reached 2.6 GW, making us the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.

In addition, today we celebrate the opening of our newest datacenter in Eemshaven, the Netherlands, which is the first Google datacenter to be powered by 100% renewable energy from day one.

The latest addition to our fleet of energy-efficient cloud computing facilities is powered by 100% renewable energy through a wind farm in nearby Delfzijl. A second wind project was announced recently in Zeeland through a new community owned cooperative of 4,000 people called Windpark Krammer.


Representing the very best of Google engineering, construction of the datacenter took two years to complete, and on average 1,500 people worked on-site each day during construction. Now that its operational, the data center will provide employment for up to 200 people in a range of roles including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, catering and security staff.

Minister Kamp at Eemshaven datacenter NL
Google's Joe Kava and Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Kamp with local students at the Eemshaven datacenter opening.

After starting discussions starting in 2012, we chose to build a datacenter in the Groningen province because of the quality of the local infrastructure including a suitably sized plot of land, the capacity of the electrical grid, water for cooling, and high speed fibre connectivity. Since then, 6,000,000 work hours have gone into getting the datacenter ready for today’s opening and technicians have run enough computer cables--16000 km in total-- to reach from Eemshaven to Australia if laid end to end.

We’ve worked to give back to the community of Groningen with initiatives like teaching kids coding at Hanze Hogeschool, several nature projects and training students and entrepreneurs in digital skills with the Digitale Werkplaats. The datacenter opening is about Google making a home in Groningen, about employing local talent, and us saying we’re here for the long term, and we look forward to being part of the community.

Google datacenters are some of the most efficient in the world. Today, they get 3.5 times more  computing power out of the same amount of energy as 5 years ago. But as our SVP of Technical Infrastructure Urs Hölzle wrote earlier today, we’re only in the early stages of this work. As we look to the immediate future, we’ll continue to pursue power purchases like those in the Netherlands with an even greater focus on regional renewable energy purchases in places where we have data centers.

Dutch datacenter is first for Google: powered by 100% renewable energy from day one

This afternoon we announced that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations — including both our data centers and offices. This is a huge milestone for us globally and here in Europe, a region that’s truly leading the way for renewables. We’re quite proud that our commitments have reached 2.6 GW, making us the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.

In addition, today we celebrate the opening of our newest datacenter in Eemshaven, the Netherlands, which is the first Google datacenter to be powered by 100% renewable energy from day one.

The latest addition to our fleet of energy-efficient cloud computing facilities is powered by 100% renewable energy through a wind farm in nearby Delfzijl. A second wind project was announced recently in Zeeland through a new community owned cooperative of 4,000 people called Windpark Krammer.


Representing the very best of Google engineering, construction of the datacenter took two years to complete, and on average 1,500 people worked on-site each day during construction. Now that its operational, the data center will provide employment for up to 200 people in a range of roles including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, catering and security staff.

Minister Kamp at Eemshaven datacenter NL
Google's Joe Kava and Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Kamp with local students at the Eemshaven datacenter opening.

After starting discussions starting in 2012, we chose to build a datacenter in the Groningen province because of the quality of the local infrastructure including a suitably sized plot of land, the capacity of the electrical grid, water for cooling, and high speed fibre connectivity. Since then, 6,000,000 work hours have gone into getting the datacenter ready for today’s opening and technicians have run enough computer cables--16000 km in total-- to reach from Eemshaven to Australia if laid end to end.

We’ve worked to give back to the community of Groningen with initiatives like teaching kids coding at Hanze Hogeschool, several nature projects and training students and entrepreneurs in digital skills with the Digitale Werkplaats. The datacenter opening is about Google making a home in Groningen, about employing local talent, and us saying we’re here for the long term, and we look forward to being part of the community.

Google datacenters are some of the most efficient in the world. Today, they get 3.5 times more  computing power out of the same amount of energy as 5 years ago. But as our SVP of Technical Infrastructure Urs Hölzle wrote earlier today, we’re only in the early stages of this work. As we look to the immediate future, we’ll continue to pursue power purchases like those in the Netherlands with an even greater focus on regional renewable energy purchases in places where we have data centers.

Dutch datacenter is first for Google: powered by 100% renewable energy from day one

This afternoon we announced that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations — including both our data centers and offices. This is a huge milestone for us globally and here in Europe, a region that’s truly leading the way for renewables. We’re quite proud that our commitments have reached 2.6 GW, making us the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.

In addition, today we celebrate the opening of our newest datacenter in Eemshaven, the Netherlands, which is the first Google datacenter to be powered by 100% renewable energy from day one.

The latest addition to our fleet of energy-efficient cloud computing facilities is powered by 100% renewable energy through a wind farm in nearby Delfzijl. A second wind project was announced recently in Zeeland through a new community owned cooperative of 4,000 people called Windpark Krammer.


Representing the very best of Google engineering, construction of the datacenter took two years to complete, and on average 1,500 people worked on-site each day during construction. Now that its operational, the data center will provide employment for up to 200 people in a range of roles including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, catering and security staff.

Minister Kamp at Eemshaven datacenter NL
Google's Joe Kava and Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Kamp with local students at the Eemshaven datacenter opening.

After starting discussions starting in 2012, we chose to build a datacenter in the Groningen province because of the quality of the local infrastructure including a suitably sized plot of land, the capacity of the electrical grid, water for cooling, and high speed fibre connectivity. Since then, 6,000,000 work hours have gone into getting the datacenter ready for today’s opening and technicians have run enough computer cables--16000 km in total-- to reach from Eemshaven to Australia if laid end to end.

We’ve worked to give back to the community of Groningen with initiatives like teaching kids coding at Hanze Hogeschool, several nature projects and training students and entrepreneurs in digital skills with the Digitale Werkplaats. The datacenter opening is about Google making a home in Groningen, about employing local talent, and us saying we’re here for the long term, and we look forward to being part of the community.

Google datacenters are some of the most efficient in the world. Today, they get 3.5 times more  computing power out of the same amount of energy as 5 years ago. But as our SVP of Technical Infrastructure Urs Hölzle wrote earlier today, we’re only in the early stages of this work. As we look to the immediate future, we’ll continue to pursue power purchases like those in the Netherlands with an even greater focus on regional renewable energy purchases in places where we have data centers.

We’re set to reach 100% renewable energy — and it’s just the beginning

Every year people search on Google trillions of times; every minute people upload more than 400 hours of YouTube videos. All of that takes an incredible amount of processing power — which means energy. Our engineers have spent years perfecting Google's data centers, making them 50 percent more energy efficient than the industry average. But we still need a lot of energy to power the products and services that our users depend on. We began purchasing renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint and address climate change — but it also makes business sense.

I’m thrilled to announce that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations — including both our data centers and offices. We were one of the first corporations to create large-scale, long-term contracts to buy renewable energy directly; we signed our first agreement to purchase all the electricity from a 114-megawatt wind farm in Iowa, in 2010. Today, we are the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy. That’s bigger than many large utilities and more than twice as much as the 1.21 gigawatts it took to send Marty McFly back to the future.

greent-wp-charts-Cumulative-Corporate-Renewal.png

To reach this goal we’ll be directly buying enough wind and solar electricity annually to account for every unit of electricity our operations consume, globally. And we're focusing on creating new energy from renewable sources, so we only buy from projects that are funded by our purchases.

Over the last six years, the cost of wind and solar came down 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively, proving that renewables are increasingly becoming the lowest cost option. Electricity costs are one of the largest components of our operating expenses at our data centers, and having a long-term stable cost of renewable power provides protection against price swings in energy.

Our 20 renewable energy projects also help support communities, from Grady County, OK, to Rutherford County, NC, to the Atacama Region of Chile to municipalities in Sweden. To date, our purchasing commitments will result in infrastructure investments of more than $3.5 billion globally, about two-thirds of that in the United States. These projects also generate tens of millions of dollars per year in revenue to local property owners, and tens of millions more to local and national governments in tax revenue.

So, we’re on track to match our global energy consumption on an annual basis by next year. But this is just the first step. As we look to the immediate future, we’ll continue to pursue these direct contracts as we grow, with an even greater focus on regional renewable energy purchases in places where we have data centers and significant operations. Since the wind doesn’t blow 24 hours a day, we’ll also broaden our purchases to a variety of energy sources that can enable renewable power, every hour of every day. Our ultimate goal is to create a world where everyone — not just Google — has access to clean energy. For more on these next steps, read our white paper.   

google_ppa.jpg
How Google purchases and uses renewable energy.

Operating our business in an environmentally sustainable way has been a core value from the beginning, and we’re always working on new ideas to make sustainability a reality — like enabling the building of healthy workplaces and creating a living, breathing dashboard for the planet. We’ve reported our carbon footprint and published information on our sustainability programs for many years in white papers, blog posts, and on our website. Now, we’ve put all this information together in a new Environmental Report.

You can also check out our new environment website, where we share stories of how we are finding new ways to do more while using less. Most of our on-campus sustainability initiatives were started by a few passionate Googlers, and have now grown into company-wide efforts. From the solar panels on our roofs to our bike-to-work program, these initiatives sit at the heart of our company culture and help both us and our users reduce our impact on the environment.

economic impact
Google is the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.

The science tells us that tackling climate change is an urgent global priority. We believe the private sector, in partnership with policy leaders, must take bold steps and that we can do so in a way that leads to growth and opportunity. And we have a responsibility to do so — to our users and the environment.

We have lots of progress left to make, but these achievements we're announcing today feel like a breath of fresh air. Now, back to work.

We’re set to reach 100% renewable energy — and it’s just the beginning

Every year people search on Google trillions of times; every minute people upload more than 400 hours of YouTube videos. All of that takes an incredible amount of processing power — which means energy. Our engineers have spent years perfecting Google's data centers, making them 50 percent more energy efficient than the industry average. But we still need a lot of energy to power the products and services that our users depend on. We began purchasing renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint and address climate change — but it also makes business sense.

I’m thrilled to announce that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations — including both our data centers and offices. We were one of the first corporations to create large-scale, long-term contracts to buy renewable energy directly; we signed our first agreement to purchase all the electricity from a 114-megawatt wind farm in Iowa, in 2010. Today, we are the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy. That’s bigger than many large utilities and more than twice as much as the 1.21 gigawatts it took to send Marty McFly back to the future.

Google PPA Chart

To reach this goal we’ll be directly buying enough wind and solar electricity annually to account for every unit of electricity our operations consume, globally. And we're focusing on creating new energy from renewable sources, so we only buy from projects that are funded by our purchases.

Over the last six years, the cost of wind and solar came down 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively, proving that renewables are increasingly becoming the lowest cost option. Electricity costs are one of the largest components of our operating expenses at our data centers, and having a long-term stable cost of renewable power provides protection against price swings in energy.

Our 20 renewable energy projects also help support communities, from Grady County, OK, to Rutherford County, NC, to the Atacama Region of Chile to municipalities in Sweden. To date, our purchasing commitments will result in infrastructure investments of more than $3.5 billion globally, about two-thirds of that in the United States. These projects also generate tens of millions of dollars per year in revenue to local property owners, and tens of millions more to local and national governments in tax revenue.

So, we’re on track to match our global energy consumption on an annual basis by next year. But this is just the first step. As we look to the immediate future, we’ll continue to pursue these direct contracts as we grow, with an even greater focus on regional renewable energy purchases in places where we have data centers and significant operations. Since the wind doesn’t blow 24 hours a day, we’ll also broaden our purchases to a variety of energy sources that can enable renewable power, every hour of every day. Our ultimate goal is to create a world where everyone — not just Google — has access to clean energy. For more on these next steps, read our white paper.   

google_ppa.jpg
How Google purchases and uses renewable energy.

Operating our business in an environmentally sustainable way has been a core value from the beginning, and we’re always working on new ideas to make sustainability a reality — like enabling the building of healthy workplaces and creating a living, breathing dashboard for the planet. We’ve reported our carbon footprint and published information on our sustainability programs for many years in white papers, blog posts, and on our website. Now, we’ve put all this information together in a new Environmental Report.

You can also check out our new environment website, where we share stories of how we are finding new ways to do more while using less. Most of our on-campus sustainability initiatives were started by a few passionate Googlers, and have now grown into company-wide efforts. From the solar panels on our roofs to our bike-to-work program, these initiatives sit at the heart of our company culture and help both us and our users reduce our impact on the environment.

economic impact
Google is the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.

The science tells us that tackling climate change is an urgent global priority. We believe the private sector, in partnership with policy leaders, must take bold steps and that we can do so in a way that leads to growth and opportunity. And we have a responsibility to do so — to our users and the environment.

We have lots of progress left to make, but these achievements we're announcing today feel like a breath of fresh air. Now, back to work.

Partnering to Help Curb the Spread of Terrorist Content Online

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube are coming together to help curb the spread of terrorist content online. There is no place for content that promotes terrorism on our hosted consumer services. When alerted, we take swift action against this kind of content in accordance with our respective policies.

Starting today, we commit to the creation of a shared industry database of “hashes” — unique digital “fingerprints” — for violent terrorist imagery or terrorist recruitment videos or images that we have removed from our services. By sharing this information with each other, we may use the shared hashes to help identify potential terrorist content on our respective hosted consumer platforms. We hope this collaboration will lead to greater efficiency as we continue to enforce our policies to help curb the pressing global issue of terrorist content online.

Our companies will begin sharing hashes of the most extreme and egregious terrorist images and videos we have removed from our services — content most likely to violate all of our respective companies' content policies. Participating companies can add hashes of terrorist images or videos that are identified on one of our platforms to the database. Other participating companies can then use those hashes to identify such content on their services, review against their respective policies and definitions, and remove matching content as appropriate.

As we continue to collaborate and share best practices, each company will independently determine what image and video hashes to contribute to the shared database. No personally identifiable information will be shared, and matching content will not be automatically removed. Each company will continue to apply its own policies and definitions of terrorist content when deciding whether to remove content when a match to a shared hash is found. And each company will continue to apply its practice of transparency and review for any government requests, as well as retain its own appeal process for removal decisions and grievances. As part of this collaboration, we will all focus on how to involve additional companies in the future.

Throughout this collaboration, we are committed to protecting our users' privacy and their ability to express themselves freely and safely on our platforms. We also seek to engage with the wider community of interested stakeholders in a transparent, thoughtful and responsible way as we further our shared objective to prevent the spread of terrorist content online while respecting human rights.

Partnering to help curb the spread of terrorist content online

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube are coming together to help curb the spread of terrorist content online. There is no place for content that promotes terrorism on our hosted consumer services. When alerted, we take swift action against this kind of content in accordance with our respective policies.

Starting today, we commit to the creation of a shared industry database of “hashes” — unique digital “fingerprints” — for violent terrorist imagery or terrorist recruitment videos or images that we have removed from our services. By sharing this information with each other, we may use the shared hashes to help identify potential terrorist content on our respective hosted consumer platforms. We hope this collaboration will lead to greater efficiency as we continue to enforce our policies to help curb the pressing global issue of terrorist content online.

Our companies will begin sharing hashes of the most extreme and egregious terrorist images and videos we have removed from our services — content most likely to violate all of our respective companies' content policies. Participating companies can add hashes of terrorist images or videos that are identified on one of our platforms to the database. Other participating companies can then use those hashes to identify such content on their services, review against their respective policies and definitions, and remove matching content as appropriate.

As we continue to collaborate and share best practices, each company will independently determine what image and video hashes to contribute to the shared database. No personally identifiable information will be shared, and matching content will not be automatically removed. Each company will continue to apply its own policies and definitions of terrorist content when deciding whether to remove content when a match to a shared hash is found. And each company will continue to apply its practice of transparency and review for any government requests, as well as retain its own appeal process for removal decisions and grievances. As part of this collaboration, we will all focus on how to involve additional companies in the future.

Throughout this collaboration, we are committed to protecting our users' privacy and their ability to express themselves freely and safely on our platforms. We also seek to engage with the wider community of interested stakeholders in a transparent, thoughtful and responsible way as we further our shared objective to prevent the spread of terrorist content online while respecting human rights.