Apple boss Tim Cook says hate speech has 'no place' on the company's platforms in new swipe at Google and Facebook

Cook won the Anti-Defamation League's Courage Against Hate Award
Earlier this year Apple removed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from its platform
Apple CEO was speaking at the ADL's Never Is Now Summit in New York

By Press Association and Phoebe Weston For Mailonline

Published: 06:13 EST, 4 December 2018 | Updated: 08:11 EST, 4 December 2018

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Apple boss Tim Cook said hate speech has 'no place' on the company's platforms in a new swipe at Google and Facebook.

Speaking after being named the inaugural winner of the Anti-Defamation League's Courage Against Hate Award, Mr Cook said the technology company would not tolerate anyone trying to spread hate using the company's products.

Earlier this year Facebook, Google and Twitter were forced to delete more than 30 million posts in just three months following reports of illegal and offensive content.

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Apple boss Tim Cook (pictured) said hate speech has 'no place' on the company's platforms as he accepted an award from a campaign group fighting anti-Semitism

'We only have one message for those who seek to push hate, division, and violence: You have no place on our platform. You have no home here,' he said.

'From the earliest days of iTunes to Apple Music today, we have always prohibited music with a message of white supremacy. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.

'And, as we showed this year, we won't give a platform to violent conspiracy theorists on the App Store. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.'

The comments come as sites like Google and Facebook struggle to curb the spread of spam, hate speech, violence and terrorism on their sites.

Facebook has faced fierce criticism from governments and rights groups for failing to do enough to stem hate speech and prevent the service from being used to promote terrorism, stir sectarian conflict and broadcast acts including murder and suicide.

Facebook disclosed that it disabled 1.3 billion 'fake accounts' in the first half of this year, many of which had 'the intent of spreading spam or conducting illicit activities such as scams'.

Last year a shocking report revealed Google-owned platform YouTube only takes down less than half hate content that gets reported.

'At Apple, we are not afraid to say that our values drive our curation decisions', Mr Cook said.

'And why should we be? Doing what's right, creating experiences free from violence and hate, experiences that empower creativity and new ideas is what our customers want us to do,' he said.

'Technology should be about human attention. It should be about optimism. And we believe the future should belong to those who use technology to build a better, more inclusive, and more hopeful world.'

In September Apple banned the controversial Infowars app from its App Store following similar crackdowns on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Spotify

The Apple chief executive was speaking at the ADL's Never Is Now Summit in New York, where he said the company's products are meant to improve lives.

'Apple is a technology company, but we never forget that the devices we make are imagined by human minds, built by human hands and are meant to improve human lives,' he said.

'I sometimes say that I worry less about computers that look like people, and more about people who think like computers, without values and compassion, without concern for consequences. And so we try to stay rooted and to keep our devices connected to the humanity that makes us us.'

Earlier this year Apple was one of several technology firms to remove conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars brand from their platforms.

In September Apple banned the controversial Infowars app from its App Store following similar crackdowns on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Spotify.

The company said the app, which belongs to Jones, violated its rules against 'objectionable content'.

The move made Apple the latest tech company or social media platform to take action against Jones, a right-wing talk-show host based in Austin, Texas.

The 44-year-old has suggested on his shows that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, among other sensational claims.

WHAT KINDS OF POSTS AND PHOTOS HAS FACEBOOK TAKEN ACTION AGAINST?

Facebook published its first quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report on Tuesday.

In it, the firm detailed how its artificial intelligence tools have succeeded - and at times failed - at effectively removing violating content from the platform.

Here are the kinds of content it disabled in the last six months leading up to March:

Violence

Q4 2017: 1.2m pieces of content -- 72% flagged automatically

Q1 2018: 3.4m pieces -- 86% flagged automatically

Hate Speech

Q4 2017: 1.6m pieces -- 24% flagged automatically

Q1 2018: 2.5m pieces -- 38% flagged automatically

Porn

Q4 2017: 21m pieces -- 94% flagged automatically

Q1 2018: 21m pieces -- 96% flagged automatically

Terrorist Propaganda

Q4 2017: 1.1m pieces -- 97% flagged automatically