Amsterdam wants to help people take down online videos of violent incidents

A system for reporting violent content found online, such as stabbings, must be set up in Amsterdam to ensure the content can be quickly removed. Political party PvdA, currently part of the coalition in Amsterdam, submitted a motion calling for the city to establish the reporting point. City Council adopted the motion on Thursday.

According to the Amsterdam PvdA, social media is increasingly contributing to the insecurity of young people, both online and offline. That is partially due to the spread of rough and extremely violent content online.

"Social media companies have not taken their responsibility for quite some time now. It is simply a revenue model. The idea that the internet is innocent and that as a government you should, above all else, exercise restraint is no longer an option as far as my party is concerned," said Council Member Fatihya Abdi.

Research by the city, and other observations, have indicated that conflicts prior to gun incidents more often start online. "You see a pattern emerge. Violent content arrives online. Subsequently, a reaction arises, both in sharing it and in emotion, among viewers who are often very young. This often happens completely without parents, schools and bystanders knowing about it. And in that online reality, our youth is growing up with the normalization of violence," said Abdi.

The reporting point must also be granted a "trusted flagger" status, just like the Online Child Abuse Expertise Office (EOKM), for example. Deletion requests from such a trusted flagger are treated with priority by social media platforms.

Abdi said she hopes that this will prevent these types of videos from going viral.