BITS Pillani students in Goa develop solution to screen radical content online

PANAJI: BITS Pilani in Goa has developed a pathbreaking solution to screen radical content online, and the Union Home Ministry has lauded the institute's efforts, which can help security agencies in the country.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was recently shown a presentation on the implementation of newly enacted criminal laws (BNS and BNSS), was impressed with BITS Pilani's project, which the Goa police have adopted. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was present for the presentation.

Hemant Rathore, a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the institute's Goa campus, said students developed two innovative solutions — radical content detection and fake URL detection — as part of its outreach programme. He said, "Security agencies can use the radical content detection solution to identify radical videos, and the general public can use the fake website detection solution to distinguish between malicious or fake websites and original ones."

Rathore said Union Minister Shah acknowledged the solution during a meeting. He thanked the institute's vice-chancellor and director, Suman Kundu, and professor Shantanu Sarkar, head of the Computer Science department, for providing logistic, infrastructure and financial support in developing these solutions. A group of students worked on this ambitious project that helps identify and filter online content that can spread hate.

Rohit Raj, a third-year Computer Science student, said that the idea originated from a hackathon organised by the Goa Police, where the problem statement was to address online videos containing extremely radical content that can instigate violence, hatred, and discrimination.

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"Tool to curb the spread of radical content among citizens"

He said, "Our tool, the Radical Content Analyser, detects, analyses, and provides a comprehensive report on a video proactively, enabling authorities to take action and decide whether to censor videos."

Raj said the product allows users to paste a URL from YouTube or X or upload their video, and the website analyses the content and provides a comprehensive report, including a radical probability score, which indicates the likelihood of the content being radical and a radical content percentage, which shows the proportion of the video that is radical.

"The report also provides an in-depth analysis based on five parameters, giving authorities an idea of whether the video needs to be taken down or censored," he said. Another third-year student, Utkarsh Dwivedi, said the innovation is designed to stop the spread of radical content among citizens.