London police have

partnered with Facebook in a new project to help prevent live streaming of

terrorist and firearms attacks across the globe. 

Starting in October, the

London Metropolitan Police Service will provide the social media giant with

footage of training exercises by its Firearms Command from the perspective of

the officers. The video will help Facebook develop tech that can identify if

someone is live streaming footage of a firearms attack, according to a press

release from the department, which is commonly referred to as the Met. 

The Mets Counter

Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) has had a long relationship with

Facebook thanks to its mission of working with companies to remove harmful

terrorist material from the web. That partnership led Facebook to reach out to

the Met when seeking assistance to carry out the project. 

Technology that

automatically stops live streaming of attacks once identified would also

significantly help prevent the glorification of such acts and the promotion of

the toxic ideologies that drive them, said Neil Basu, the U.K.s top-ranking

counter terrorism police oficer.We welcome such efforts to prevent terrorism

and its glorification and are happy to help develop this technology.

If Facebook is

successful in developing software to detect attacks, the platform could notify

police of an attack early on and prevent live streaming from continuing on its

site. The issue became more urgent last March after a mass shooter used

Facebook to live stream his massacre of 51 people at a mosque in Christchurch,

New Zealand. 

The Met plans to capture

footage for the project on body cameras attached to officers as they carry out

regular training so that Facebook has the volume of footage it needs to develop

the AI tech. Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. are also providing video to

Facebook, the release said. 

In addition, the

training videos will be shared with the U.K.s Home Office, which oversees

immigration, security and law enforcement. From there, other tech companies

will be able to request the footage so they can develop similar software to

detect videos taken from theshooter perspective, according to the

release. 

This partnership with the Met Police will help train our AI systems

with the volume of data needed to identify these incidents, said Stephanie

McCourt, Facebooks law enforcement outreach lead in the U.K.We will remain committed

to improving our detection abilities and keeping harmful content off Facebook.