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Facebook Inc. plans to broaden a program that gives free advertising to online activists that fight back against online hate-speech, the latest expansion of tech-industry efforts to undermine internet propaganda from Islamist terrorists and far-right radicals.

The social-networking company said Wednesday that its Berlin-based Online Civil Courage Initiative, founded in January, will expand from a pilot phase focused on Germany, France and the U.K. to offer advertising credits and marketing advice to a broader array of groups.

Since its creation in January, the program has helped organizations that use Facebook to counteract hateful or extremist messages reach more than two million people with €10,000 ($11,174) in advertising credits, the company said. Facebook has pledged €1 million in credits over two years.

Tech companies, think tanks, activists and governments are pouring resources into new ways to fight back against violent propaganda washing over the internet from Islamist groups and far-right radicals. The logic is that since such messages can never be blocked entirely, someone must argue against them, an approach called counter-narratives or counter-speech.

"Censorship is not effective," said Erin Saltman, program manager of Facebook's Online Civil Courage Initiative, who also works with London-based think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. "Conversations would start on mainstream platforms and migrate to less regulated, encrypted platforms."

Content removal is growing. Facebook said it has removed more than 38,000 pieces of content in the European Union in the second half of 2015 because of government requests, with the vast majority from France following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. Twitter said in August that it had removed 235,000 terrorist-related accounts in the last six months, nearly double the prior period.

But tech companies argue that it will always be possible to find similar material elsewhere online. Some Silicon Valley executives say they are also uncomfortable automatically removing posts since that could lead to a chilling effect on free speech. "Silencing a conversation doesn't help win the argument," one tech executive said.

While government efforts to counteract propaganda have largely sputtered, private groups are taking up the initiative.

Facebook later Wednesday is participating in an event in New York to highlight another initiative it has supported, in which college students come up with campaigns to counteract violent extremism. Other groups, are running experiments with companies including Alphabet Inc., Twitter Inc. and Facebook on ways to use the machinery of online advertising to counteract extremist messages.

Started in January, Facebook's Online Civil Courage Initiative was in part a response to criticism by German politicians that extremists were using its website to spread hatred against immigrants. The initiative aims to support nongovernmental organizations who counter hateful comments with democratic views—mounting things such as "like" attacks on pages rather than removing them.

In the next year, Facebook plans to create a stand-alone website for the Civil Courage Initiative so that organizations can find information and marketing advice, Ms. said. The initiative will also publish "trend reports where we can keep our finger on the pulse a little more and keep activists updated with trends that are taking place so they can react more in time," Ms. Saltman said.

Saltman

Simone Rafael of Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a German anti-bigotry group, said the program's goal is to strengthen communities that "stand up to a vocal minority of people who try to create the impression they were the majority."

Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Friedrich Geiger at friedrich.geiger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 21, 2016 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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