New Zealand Blog
Google news for Kiwis
Promoting pride and respect with machine learning
Friday, February 16, 2018
At Google, we think everyone should be able to express themselves online, so we want make conversations more inclusive. Sometimes the labels we use to describe ourselves and our loved ones can be used to harass people online - but technology can help.
Given
Auckland Pride
is one of the first pride parades in the world every year, today we’re kicking off
Project Respect
to help make conversations more inclusive. We are asking members of the LGBTIQ+ community and their supporters to write a statement about themselves, or someone they love and respect, to help reclaim positive identity labels.
Project Respect invites people to write a statement about themselves or LGBTQI+ people that they love and respect, to help reclaim positive identity labels.
These statements will then go into an open source data set, which coders, developers and technologists all over the world can use to help teach machine learning models how the LGBTIQ+ community speak about themselves.
One of those machine learning algorithms is called “
Perspective
”. It’s a tool we’ve been developing that can be used to highlight the toxicity of a comment to you, while you’re writing it. That gives you, as the writer, an opportunity to reflect, reconsider and edit your comment, making conversations more inclusive.
Perspective is an early-stage technology that uses machine learning to help identify toxic comments.
And while Project Respect began in Sydney, it’s also being rolled out at Pride in Auckland and other parts of the world, meaning the data we gather will represent the LGBTIQ+ community on a global scale.
What statement am I contributing to Project Respect? “I am so proud and happy to be a gay Kiwi man. As gay people, I feel we can really live the life and be the people we want to be. I wouldn't want it any other way.”
And at Google, we encourage people to bring their whole selves to work wherever they are - including in our New Zealand offices - and we are committed to cultivating a work environment where Googlers can be themselves and thrive.
We also want our employees to have the same inclusive experience outside of the office, and for LGBTIQ+ communities to be safe and to be accepted wherever they are, both in the real world, and online.
Don’t forget to share your statement
here
, and help make conversations more inclusive.
Posted by Sam Thomson, Cloud Sales, New Zealand
Back to school with Google for Education
Friday, February 2, 2018
As the 2018 school year kicks off we’re counting down some of last year’s education highlights
Bag packed, pencils labelled and lunchbox ready… As students start returning to school this week, we’re taking a look back at five of the top Google for Education moments from 2017 in Australia and New Zealand.
In 2017...
Educators were empowered to teach digital skills, with new professional development programs and resources. We awarded
22 Computer Science for High Schools (CS4HS) grants
in Australia and
5 CS4HS grants
in New Zealand and launched
Careers with Code 2017
to every high school in Australia and New Zealand. We also saw 20,000 teachers enroll in the
CSER MOOCs
.
In New Zealand, we worked with the government to implement the digital technologies curriculum and hosted a ceremony for recent graduates of
Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy
- a program which provides new teachers with a year of teaching and training in a full immersion digital environment.
Online safety is front and centre for students, parents and teachers and we supported partners to develop online wellbeing programs for young people, including
Project Rockit TV
; a series of short videos addressing issues such as bullying and online behaviour. Kiwi students also had access to an online cyber bullying quiz to gain their
digital license
with the launch of the program in New Zealand, while the
Generation Next
seminar series and accompanying
YouTube channel
provided resources to empower students as ambassadors for mental health and wellbeing within their schools.
Schools told us that they wanted to learn more about Google’s education tools, so we visited classrooms from Bendigo to Rotorua during the
Google Reimagining Education with Technology
tour across 12 locations. Thousands of educators shared and learned together at
Education On Air
and
EduTECH
.
Last but not least,
Chromebooks
arrived in more classrooms, helping students access learning opportunities and supporting innovative teaching approaches. In New Zealand, Chromebooks were
named
as the number one selling education device in schools, while in Australia, all secondary students across Canberra Public Schools will
receive a Chromebook
, starting in Term 1 2018. Globally,
more than 25 million students
are using Chromebooks and over
30 million teachers and students
use Google Classroom.
We’re always inspired by the great work that educators and students do - both inside and outside of the classroom - and we look forward to supporting innovation in education in 2018 and beyond.
There goes the school bell!
Posted by Suan Yeo, Head of Education, Google Australia and New Zealand
Posted by Suan Yeo, Head of Education, Google Australia and New Zealand
Year in Search: The moments that defined 2017 in New Zealand
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Kiwis searched for slime, sport and spaghetti bolognese in 2017
2017 was an action-packed year for New Zealand. We won the America’s Cup. We elected a new government. We kept a close eye on world news and events, but found time to try new things at home. We lost some truly amazing people, but celebrated the true heroes among us. To see the year off in style, here’s a wrap of the top trending* searches brought Kiwis together in Search.
On top of the world
New Zealand’s victory in the America's Cup in Bermuda put the country back on top of the yachting world, and put the tournament high on our trending search list this year. True to form, we also spent a lot of time checking out other major sporting events like the Lion’s Tour and the Melbourne Cup. The highly addictive fidget spinner came in at number three, spinning its way into our hearts, hands and searches for much of the year.
Democracy and disasters
The General Election led our news searches in 2017, undoubtedly the biggest news moment of the year with almost 80% of enrolled Kiwis turning out to vote (how to vote was also a very popular search term in 2017). We were also preoccupied with wild weather events that wreaked havoc here and abroad, from hurricanes and cyclones to flooding and fires.
Politicians and other public figures
Half of our top ten trending Kiwis this year were politicians. New Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern came out at number one, while interest in her partner Clarke Gayford also put him on the list. We also searched for our favourite sports legends, including Peter Burling, Jerome Kaino and the late All Black Sione Lauaki.
Honouring the departed
We mourned the loss of some greats this year, too. John Clarke, the Kiwi behind the cultural icon Fred Dagg sadly passed away. Other legends we said goodbye to included Silver Fern and international netball player Tania Dalton, singer-songwriter Tom Petty and actor John Hurt.
How do you make slime, anyway?
Our top ‘how to…?’ searches for 2017 show we were completely obsessed with making slime, with four of top ten trending searches related to this sticky endeavour. But just to show we can be serious too, ‘How to vote in NZ’ took the number two spot, while the popularity of ‘how to cook pork belly’ proves we were keen to keep mixing it up in the kitchen. We also asked some pretty eclectic questions, with topics ranging from cryptocurrency to kimchi. And fidget spinners, just for good measure.
Meat makes a comeback
Our top recipe searches show our love affair with meat dishes continued in 2017. Beef stroganoff, pulled pork, lamb shanks and spaghetti bolognese all tickled our taste buds throughout the year, joined by other non-meaty favourites like hot cross buns, pikelets, and the perennial Year in Search classic, pancakes!
And that’s just a preview. To dive into the top trending terms of the year, check out New Zealand’s full trending lists*:
Overall searches
Lotto result NZ
America's Cup 2017
Fidget spinner
Election NZ 2017
NZTA road closures
Cyclone Cook
All Blacks vs Lions
Melbourne Cup 2017
North Korea
Daylight savings 2017
News
Election NZ 2017
NZTA road closures
Cyclone Cook
North Korea
Hurricane Irma
Christchurch fire
New Zealand flooding
London fire
UK election
Cyclone Debbie
Global People
Harvey Weinstein
Ed Sheeran
Bruce Springsteen
Pippa Middleton
Kevin Spacey
Gal Gadot
Floyd Mayweather
Jake Paul
David Cassidy
Bruno Mars
Kiwis
Jacinda Ardern
Winston Peters
Bill English
Jerome Kaino
Peter Burling
Jaylene Cook
Clarke Gayford
Sione Lauaki
Metiria Turei
Todd Barclay
Loss
Tom Petty
Chester Bennington
Tania Dalton
Hugh Hefner
Bill Paxton
Carissa Avison
Rich Piana
John Clarke
John Hurt
Dan Vickerman
Sporting events
America's Cup 2017
All Blacks vs Lions
Melbourne Cup 2017
Wimbledon 2017
World Masters Games
Bathurst 2017
Rugby League World Cup
Mayweather vs McGregor
US Open 2017 tennis
Australian Open 2017
How to…?
How to make slime
How to vote in NZ
How to make a fidget spinner
How to make slime without borax
How to make fluffy slime
How to delete Instagram accounts
How to make slime without glue
How to lose weight
How to draw a dragon
How to cook pork belly
What is…?
What is Black Friday 2017
What is typhoid
What is bitcoin
What is kimchi
What is the time
What is a fidget spinner
What is botulism
What is borax
What is a cyclone
What is MSG
Recipes
Hot cross buns
Beef stroganoff
Pikelets
Spaghetti bolognese
Yorkshire pudding
Pancakes
Pulled pork
Slime
Anzac biscuits
Lamb shanks
To rediscover the events, people and topics that defined 2017 around the world, watch our video
here.
Posted by Camilla Ibrahim, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand
* Trending Searches:
What was hot in 2017?
The "trending" queries are the searches that had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2017 as compared to 2016.
Calling for 2018 CS Educator Grant applications
Monday, December 11, 2017
Google has
long supported the Digital Technologies Curriculum
in New Zealand to equip and inspire students. The Digital Technologies Curriculum focuses on computational thinking and computer science to provide students with the opportunity to develop skills needed for the jobs of the future.
Our annual CS educator professional development (PD) grant program (formerly known as CS4HS) is designed to increase access to CS education by funding computer science professional development programs for educators and support them in the curriculum implementation. More than 9,000 educators in Australia and New Zealand have benefited from training by expert PD providers dedicated to growing the confidence and skillset of new and future CS educators.
Today, we’re excited to announce our 2018 funding cycle is
open
to universities, schools and nonprofits around Australia and New Zealand. Applications will close on the 2 March 2018. To learn more about the application process head to the
website
.
The impact of PD grants for educators
Tracy Henderson from the University of Canterbury and Julie McMahon from the
New Zealand Association for Computing, Digital and Information Technology Teachers
identified an opportunity to ensure equal access to CS for students and teachers in rural communities in New Zealand. With their CS educator grant, the CS4PD program created by Tracy and Julie established regional CS Professional Development (PD) hubs in the North and South Islands of New Zealand to ensure all teachers are given the opportunity to engage with CS.
CS Professional Development hubs were created in the North and South Islands of New Zealand with the help of
a CS educator grant
In 2017, the team hosted a three-day workshop for 55 teachers from primary, secondary intermediate schools across New Zealand where teachers were introduced to the proposed new curriculum along with accessible, hands on training to run PD for teachers back in their regions. The primary goal for Julie was to “be inclusive of all regions and all types of schools and in particular it was important that our Maori Medium teachers present felt valued and their mana embraced by everyone present”.
The workshop was a huge success, with 2018 PD plans in the works that include the creation of a resource depository for teachers to access through New Zealand. Tracy says, “We concluded the week with inspired teachers ready to help support other teachers within their regions and schools to implement the new Digital Technologies curriculum in 2018".
Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, community and engineering outreach manager, Google New Zealand
Te reo, Tricks and Tweets: What kept Kiwis watching in 2017
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
2017 was the year Kiwis embraced te reo, applauded homegrown comedy and danced to the dulcet tones of Ed Sheeran. From ping pong to memes to making light of mean tweets, Kiwis looked to laugh, play and jam all year long. As we wind down the year, it’s time to sit back and celebrate the videos that defined 2017. #YouTubeRewind is our annual roundup of the YouTube videos that trended over the last 12 months, according to time spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking and more.
New Zealand’s Top Trending Videos of 2017
For the first time, two of New Zealand’s top 10 videos of the year were in te reo Māori: Maimoa Music’s hit single Wairua and a cover of the classic waiata Tiaho mai rā by Jessica & Tiana Waru. Kiwi comedians Jono and Ben made the top trending list with their satirical take on the viral kids interrupting BBC interview clip. Our love of singing in cars continued in 2017, including a take on Tennessee Whiskey, and James Corden’s phenomenally popular Carpool Karaoke series. Along the way we also celebrated an extraordinary ping pong trick victory, marvelled at a ventriloquist – and joined in on political mash-ups.
WAIRUA - Maimoa
Ed Sheeran Carpool Karaoke
Ping Pong Trick Shots 3 | Dude Perfect
"INAUGURATION DAY" — A Bad Lip Reading of Donald Trump's Inauguration
tennessee whiskey amazing cover!!!!
Woman interrupted during BBC interview
Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #11
Darci Lynne: 12-Year-Old Singing Ventriloquist Gets Golden Buzzer - America's Got Talent 2017
Jessica & Tiana Waru - Tiaho mai ra [Laughs & Jams]
ED SHEERAN - Shape Of You | Kyle Hanagami Choreography
New Zealand’s Top Trending Music Videos
Our list of top 10 music videos for 2017 is a mix of mega hits and pop classics. We were clearly hooked on Ed Sheeran, with ‘Shape of You’ making two appearances in the top trending music list. From the breezy island beats of Luis Fonsi’s Despacito to Taylor Swift’s self referential Look What You Made Me Do, Kiwis kept the volume up and the music playing on YouTube throughout the year.
Ed Sheeran - Shape of You [Official Video]
Bruno Mars - That’s What I Like [Official Video]
DJ Khaled - I'm the One ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, Lil Wayne
Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE.
DJ Khaled - Wild Thoughts ft. Rihanna, Bryson Tiller
Luis Fonsi - Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee
Jason Derulo - Swalla (feat. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign) (Official Music Video)
Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do
The Chainsmokers & Coldplay - Something Just Like This (Lyric)
Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You [Official Lyric Video]
New Zealand’s Top Emerging Channels
For the first time, #YouTubeRewind also examined the growth of local channels to unearth the top 10 Trending Kiwi YouTube Creators for 2017. Up and coming Kiwi YouTube channels in 2017 included a bunch of serious console and PC gamers, music and crafts to keep the little ones happy. It also includes a rundown of the coolest smartphones and tech gadgets on the market, and some hilarious recorder music fails.
Sky Ps4 Gamer
PieSenpai
McCreamy
Super Surprise Show
EssenceOfClutch
Fitz
DISNEY BRILLIANT COLORING BOOK CHANNEL FOR KIDS
Baby Beavers - Toddler Learning Toys & Songs
Tech Best
Rec0rder Mast3r
Stay tuned to see the YouTube’s Rewind video, celebrating the top memes and moments of the year from around the world!
Posted by Camilla Ibrahim, Communications & Public Affairs Manager, YouTube Australia and New Zealand
Expanding our work against abuse of our platform
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
As the CEO of YouTube, I’ve seen how our open platform has been a force for creativity, learning and access to information. I’ve seen how activists have used it to advocate for social change, mobilize protests, and document war crimes. I’ve seen how it serves as both an entertainment destination and a video library for the world. I’ve seen how it has expanded economic opportunity, allowing small businesses to market and sell their goods across borders. And I’ve seen how it has helped enlighten my children, giving them a bigger, broader understanding of our world and the billions who inhabit it.
But I’ve also seen up-close that there can be another, more troubling, side of YouTube’s openness. I’ve seen how some bad actors are exploiting our openness to mislead, manipulate, harass or even harm.
In the last year, we took actions to protect our community against violent or extremist content, testing new systems to combat emerging and evolving threats. We tightened our policies on what content can appear on our platform, or earn revenue for creators. We increased our enforcement teams. And we invested in powerful new machine learning technology to scale the efforts of our human moderators to take down videos and comments that violate our policies.
Now, we are applying the lessons we’ve learned from our work fighting violent extremism content over the last year in order to tackle other problematic content. Our goal is to stay one step ahead of bad actors, making it harder for policy-violating content to surface or remain on YouTube.
More people reviewing more content
Human reviewers remain essential to both removing content and training machine learning systems because human judgment is critical to making contextualized decisions on content. Since June, our trust and safety teams have manually reviewed nearly 2 million videos for violent extremist content, helping train our machine-learning technology to identify similar videos in the future. We are also taking aggressive action on comments, launching new comment moderation tools and in some cases shutting down comments altogether. In the last few weeks we’ve used machine learning to help human reviewers find and terminate hundreds of accounts and shut down hundreds of thousands of comments. Our teams also work closely with NCMEC, the IWF, and other child safety organizations around the world to report predatory behavior and accounts to the correct law enforcement agencies.
We will continue the significant growth of our teams into next year, with the goal of bringing the total number of people across Google working to address content that might violate our policies to over 10,000 in 2018.
At the same time, we are expanding the network of academics, industry groups and subject matter experts who we can learn from and support to help us better understand emerging issues.
Tackling issues at scale
We will use our cutting-edge machine learning more widely to allow us to quickly and efficiently remove content that violates our guidelines. In June we deployed this technology to flag violent extremist content for human review and we’ve seen tremendous progress.
Since June we have removed over 150,000 videos for violent extremism.
Machine learning is helping our human reviewers remove nearly five times as many videos than they were previously.
Today, 98 percent of the videos we remove for violent extremism are flagged by our machine-learning algorithms.
Our advances in machine learning let us now take down nearly 70 percent of violent extremist content within eight hours of upload and nearly half of it in two hours and we continue to accelerate that speed.
Since we started using machine learning to flag violent and extremist content in June, the technology has reviewed and flagged content that would have taken 180,000 people working 40 hours a week to assess.
Because we have seen these positive results, we have begun training machine-learning technology across other challenging content areas, including
child safety
and hate speech.
Greater transparency
We understand that people want a clearer view of how we’re tackling problematic content. Our
Community Guidelines
give users notice about what we do not allow on our platforms and we want to share more information about how these are enforced. That’s why in 2018 we will be creating a regular report where we will provide more aggregate data about the flags we receive and the actions we take to remove videos and comments that violate our content policies. We are looking into developing additional tools to help bring even more transparency around flagged content.
A new approach to advertising on YouTube
We’re also taking actions to protect advertisers and creators from inappropriate content. We want advertisers to have peace of mind that their ads are running alongside content that reflects their brand’s values. Equally, we want to give creators confidence that their revenue won’t be hurt by the actions of bad actors.
We believe this requires a new approach to advertising on YouTube, carefully considering which channels and videos are eligible for advertising. We are planning to apply stricter criteria, conduct more manual curation, while also significantly ramping up our team of ad reviewers to ensure ads are only running where they should. This will also help vetted creators see more stability around their revenue. It’s important we get this right for both advertisers and creators, and over the next few weeks, we’ll be speaking with both to hone this approach.
We are taking these actions because it’s the right thing to do. Creators make incredible content that builds global fan bases. Fans come to YouTube to watch, share, and engage with this content. Advertisers, who want to reach those people, fund this creator economy. Each of these groups is essential to YouTube’s creative ecosystem—none can thrive on YouTube without the other—and all three deserve our best efforts.
As challenges to our platform evolve and change, our enforcement methods must and will evolve to respond to them. But no matter what challenges emerge, our commitment to combat them will be sustained and unwavering. We will take the steps necessary to protect our community and ensure that YouTube continues to be a place where creators, advertisers, and viewers can thrive.
Posted by Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube
Get Google Play Apps, Music and More by Answering Surveys
Monday, November 6, 2017
Want to trade your opinion for the new Broods single? Maybe you want to fill your armour slots on Minecraft, but would rather pay with your time instead of your money for new gear? Answer quick surveys from researchers and earn Google Play credit with
Google Opinion Rewards
, an Android app now available on Google Play (
goo.gl/BW2p4j
) for users located in New Zealand.
To get started, download the app from Google Play (
goo.gl/BW2p4j
). About once a week, you'll get a notification on your phone that a short and relevant survey is ready for you. Questions will range from “Which logo is best?” and “Which promotion is most compelling?” to “When do you plan on traveling next?”. After setting up their account, users will receive Google Play credit for completing s
urveys and earn up to $1.50 NZD for every survey they take.
How do I install Google Opinion Rewards?
+ Open the Google Play store
+ Search for “Google Opinion Rewards”
+ Click install
Introducing Family Link to New Zealand
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Young Kiwis, just like their counterparts in other countries, are highly connected. The typical New Zealand household now owns an average of 10 connected devices*, with younger members likely to use them on a daily basis to watch videos, study for a school report, play games, and more.
Managing our children’s use of these devices, however, can be tricky. Just as we want to look after our children in the physical world, we’re also concerned about stuff like the apps they’re using and how much time they’re spending on their devices. There’s always a balance to strike between giving our kids the freedom to explore the internet and helping guide their experience. Starting this week, it will be easier for Kiwi parents to help manage their kid’s Android device and Google account with the launch of
Family Link
, which recently
launched
broadly in the US.
Here’s how it works: First, your child will need a new or factory reset Android device (
see which devices work with Family Link
). When you're setting up your child's device, Google asks you to create an account. Enter your kid’s birthday, and if they’re under 13, you’ll be asked to provide consent to create the account. Once that's done, Family Link will automatically be downloaded to your child's device, and you can choose the apps and settings that you want for them. After setting up your child’s device, download Family Link onto your device, and you can use it to do things like:
Manage the apps your child can use
Approve or block the apps your child wants to download from the Google Play Store.
Keep an eye on screen time
See how much time your child spends on their favorite apps with weekly or monthly activity reports, and set daily screen time limits for their device.
Set device bedtime
Remotely lock your child’s device when it’s time to play, study, or sleep.
As we continue to develop Family Link,
we’d love to hear feedback
from Kiwi kids and parents on how we can make the Family Link experience even better. If you have questions about setting up an account for your kid or using Family Link, check out our
Help Center
.
To help your kid make smart choices when using their device, check out our
tips for families
, or information from our local partner
Netsafe
.
Charles Zaffaroni, Product Manager, Kids and Families
*Based on New Zealand census data
Working together to combat terrorists online
Friday, September 29, 2017
Last week Google hosted a regional event in Jakarta exploring how ‘counter narratives’ can be used to prevent extremism. Counter narratives can be described as responses to extremist ideas or propaganda and can take many forms. The discussions extended to far right extremism and experiences using counter narratives within this community as well as the definition of extremism.
At the event there was strong representation from Australia and New Zealand with YouTube content creators, civil society groups, academics and policy makers joining the conversation. There was an unanimous agreement that none of us can address this challenge on our own - we need to come together in fora such as the one in Jakarta to share information and ideas; and explore opportunities where we can actively collaborate or support each other’s activities. We look forward to continuing these conversations over the coming months, including within the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism that Kent Walker, our Global General Counsel, describes below.
Samantha Yorke, Policy Policy Manager, Google Australia
[
Editor’s note:
This is a revised and abbreviated version of a speech Kent delivered at the United Nations in New York City, NY, on behalf of the members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.]
The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism is a group of four technology companies—Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube—that are committed to working together and with governments and civil society to address the problem of online terrorist content.
For our companies, terrorism isn’t just a business concern or a technical challenge. These are deeply personal threats. We are citizens of London, Paris, Jakarta, and New York. And in the wake of each terrorist attack we too frantically check in on our families and co-workers to make sure they are safe. We’ve all had to do this far too often.
The products that our companies build lower barriers to innovation and empower billions of people around the world. But we recognize that the internet and other tools have also been abused by terrorists in their efforts to recruit, fundraise, and organize. And we are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure that our platforms aren't used to distribute terrorist material.
The Forum’s efforts are focused on three areas: leveraging technology, conducting research on patterns of radicalization and misuse of online platforms, and sharing best practices to accelerate our joint efforts against dangerous radicalization. Let me say more about each pillar.
First, when it comes to technology, you should know that our companies are putting our best talent and technology against the task of getting terrorist content off our services. There is no silver bullet when it comes to finding and removing this content, but we’re getting much better.
One early success in collaboration has been our “hash sharing” database, which allows a company that discovers terrorist content on one of their sites to create a digital fingerprint and share it with the other companies in the coalition, who can then more easily detect and review similar content for removal.
We have to deal with these problems at tremendous scale. The haystacks are unimaginably large and the needles are both very small and constantly changing. People upload over 400 hours of content to YouTube every minute. Our software engineers have spent years developing technology that can spot certain telltale cues and markers. In recent months we have more than doubled the number of videos we've removed for violent extremism and have located these videos twice as fast. And what’s more, 75 percent of the violent extremism videos we’ve removed in recent months were found using technology before they received a single human flag.
These efforts are working. Between August 2015 and June 2017, Twitter suspended more than 935,000 accounts for the promotion of terrorism. During the first half of 2017, over 95 percent of the accounts it removed were detected using its in-house technology. Facebook is using new advances in artificial intelligence to root out "terrorist clusters" by mapping out the pages, posts, and profiles with terrorist material and then shutting them down.
Despite this recent progress, machines are simply not at the stage where they can replace human judgment. For example, portions of a terrorist video in a news broadcast might be entirely legitimate, but a computer program will have difficulty distinguishing documentary coverage from incitement.
The Forum’s second pillar is focused on conducting and sharing research about how terrorists use the internet to influence their audiences so that we can stay one step ahead.
Today, the members of the Forum are pleased to announce that we are making a multi-million dollar commitment to support research on terrorist abuse of the internet and how governments, tech companies, and civil society can fight back against online radicalization.
The Forum has also set a goal of working with 50 smaller tech companies to help them better tackle terrorist content on their platforms. On Monday, we hosted dozens of companies for a workshop with our partners under the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate. There will be a workshop in Brussels in December and another in Indonesia in the coming months. And we are also working to expand the hash-sharing database to smaller companies.
The Forum’s final pillar is working together to find powerful messages and avenues to reach out to those at greatest risk of radicalization.
Members of the forum are doing a better job of sharing breakthroughs with each other. One success we’ve seen is with the Redirect Method developed at Alphabet’s Jigsaw group. Redirect uses targeted advertising to reach people searching for terrorist content and presents videos that undermine extremist recruiting efforts. During a recent eight-week study more than 300,000 users clicked on our targeted ads and watched more than 500,000 minutes of video. This past April, Microsoft started a similar program on Bing. And Jigsaw and Bing are now exploring a partnership to share best practices and expertise.
At the same time, we’re elevating the voices that are most credible in speaking out against terrorism, hate, and violence. YouTube’s Creators for Change program highlights online stars taking a stand against xenophobia and extremism. And Facebook's P2P program has brought together more than 5,000 students from 68 countries to create campaigns to combat hate speech. And together the companies have participated in hundreds of meetings and trainings to counter violent extremism including events in Beirut, Bosnia, and Brussels and summits at the White House, here at the United Nations, London, and Sydney to empower credible non-governmental voices against violent extremism.
There is no magic computer program that will eliminate online terrorist content, but we are committed to working with everyone in this room as we continue to ramp up our own efforts to stop terrorists’ abuse of our services. This forum is an important step in the right direction. We look forward to working with national and local governments, and civil society, to prevent extremist ideology from spreading in communities and online.
- Kent Walker, Global General Counsel, Google
At New Zealand schools, Chromebooks top the list of learning tools
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
New Zealand educators are changing their approach to teaching, building personalised learning pathways for every student. Technology plays a key part in this approach. New Zealand has joined the list of countries including
Sweden
and the United States where Chromebooks are the number one device used in schools, according to analysts at
International Data Corporation
(IDC).
“Chromebooks continue to be a top choice for schools,” says Arunachalam Muthiah, Senior Market Analyst, IDC NZ. “After Chromebooks’ strong performance in 2016, we see a similar trend in the first half of 2017 with Chromebooks gaining a total shipment market share of 46 percent, continuing to hold their position as the number-one selling device in schools across New Zealand.”
Bombay School students learning about conductivity, electrical circuits and constructing a tune.
Technology is transforming education across the globe, and in New Zealand schools are using digital tools to help students learn, in the classroom and beyond.
At
Bombay School
, located in the rural foothills south of Auckland, students could only get an hour a week of computer access. Bombay School’s principal and board decided on a 1:1 “bring your own device” program with Chromebooks, along with secure device management using a
Chrome Education license
.
Teachers quickly realised that since each student was empowered with a Chromebook, access to learning opportunities increased daily, inspiring students to chart new learning paths. “Technology overcomes constraints,” says Paul Petersen, principal of Bombay School. “If I don’t understand multiplication today, I can learn about it online. I can look for help. I can practice at my own pace, anywhere I am.”
In 2014 Bombay School seniors collectively scored in the 78th percentile for reading; in 2016, they reached nearly the 90th percentile.
Students at Point England School take a digital license quiz to learn about online behavior.
In the Manaiakalani Community of Learning in East Auckland, some students start school with lower achievement levels than students in other school regions. Manaiakalani chose Chromebooks to support its
education program goals
and manage budget challenges. By
bringing Chromebooks
to the Manaiakalani schools, “we broke apart the barriers of the 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. school day,” says Dorothy Burt, head of the Manaiakalani Education Program and Digital Learning Coordinator, based at Point England School. Using
G Suite for Education
tools on their Chromebooks, students can work with other students, teachers, and parents on their lessons in the classroom, the library, or at home.
Dorothy Burt says “we’re seeing not only engagement, but actual
literacy outcomes improve
—it’s made a huge difference to the opportunities students will have in the future.”
We look forward to supporting more countries and schools as they redefine teaching and make learning even more accessible for every student, anywhere.
Posted by Suan Yeo, Head of Education Australia and New Zealand, Google for Education
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