Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube announced Monday the launch of an anti-terror partnership aimed at thwarting the spread of extremist content online.

The "Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism" intends to share engineering, research, and knowledge to help "continue to make our hosted consumer services hostile to terrorists and violent extremists," the companies said.

Each of the technology giants has been working individually to prevent its platforms or services from being used to promote or spread extremist views. The new forum built on discussions in Europe and conclusions of recent Group of Seven (G7) and European Council, according to the companies.