Internet giant teams up with politicians and academics to host two-day summit in bid to disrupt illegal activity on the internet

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Google is attempting to turn the tables on criminals and terrorists who exploit the internet by using its search capabilities to expose and disrupt illicit activity.

The internet giant has launched a campaign against the secrecy and impunity of drug cartels, organ harvesters, cyber-criminals, violent radicals and traffickers in arms and people.

It has assembled victims, law enforcers, politicians, academics and technology experts to devise strategies in a two-day summit in Los Angeles, starting Tuesday, called Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition.

Google Ideas, the company's thinktank, has teamed up with the Council on Foreign Relations, Interpol and other organisations to look for ways to use technology against organised crime, jihadists and others.

"Google is in a great position to take these on," Rani Hong, a survivor of child trafficking in India who is now a special adviser to the United Nations, told reporters on the eve of the event. "They're a powerful medium and they have great tools to solve this problem."

It is the brainchild of Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, and the thinktank's head, Jared Cohen, a former state department wunderkind best known for persuading Twitter to delay maintenance so that protesters could continue communicating during upheaval in Iran in 2009.

The summit has assembled an eclectic mix including Ronald Noble, Interpol's secretary general; Juan Pablo Escobar, son of the late Colombian drug lord; Alejandro Poire, Mexico's interior minister; Okello Sam, a Ugandan former child soldier; Andy Weber, assistant secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs at the US department of defense; and a group of North Korean defectors.

Others due to attend include former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff, senior executives from JP Morgan Chase and Credit Suisse, experts in DNA and counterfeiting and civic society leaders.

Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who helped organise the event, told AP: "It might sound like a different path for Google, but technology companies today have a lot of powerful tools for bringing transparency to these illicit networks, to fight back against corruption and empower those who are trying to combat transnational crime."

Participants will discuss how illicit surgeons and organ brokers smuggle kidneys and other organs; how whistleblowers can expose narcotics networks; how insurance fraudsters and counterfeiters use evade borders. Another topic will be how recovered human skin and bone is transformed into dental and cosmetic products for plumping up lips or smoothing wrinkles.

This gathering follows a conference Google organised in Ireland last year which assembled dozens of former gang members and radical militants to discuss ways technology can inhibit others following their footsteps.

Cohen, one of the few high-ranking state department officials to serve both the Bush and Obama administrations, joined Google last year to head a small New York-based team and practise what he has called 21st century statecraft. He calls Google Ideas a "think/do-tank", reflecting Silicon Valley confidence – hubris, say critics – at tackling complicated, deep-rooted problems.