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November 2021 Update

Adam Southey Dec 6, 2021 12:47:46 PM

News

November 2021 Update

Webinar Alert!

  • For Tech Against Terrorism and GIFCT's December webinar, we will conclude the year by looking back at the evolution of the terrorist and violent extremism online threat landscape in 2021, and how tech policy and online regulation have adapted in response. You can register here! 

    On this occasion, we will have the pleasure to welcome:  
    • Meili Criezis, PhD student in Justice, Law, and Criminology at the American University, and GNET contributor 
    • Konstantinos Komaitis, Online regulation expert and digital rights advocate  
    • Jessica Mason, Head of Global Policy and Public Affairs, Clubhouse 

Online Regulation Series

The Online Regulation Series is back for a 2nd edition. So far this month, we have published blog posts on 

Keep an eye out next week for our final week, including 

  • Italy 
     
  • Ireland 
     
  • European Union (update)

Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP)

  • Thanks to all who tuned in to our TCAP December Office Hours. If you were unable to attend this month and would like access to a recording of the session, please get in touch with us at support@terrorismanalytics.org. You can also request a copy of past Office Hours recordings on our website here. 

Knowledge Sharing Platform

Over the past month, we have updated the Knowledge Sharing Platform, adding the following 

  • Online Regulation:  
    We have added our Online Regulation Series Handbook, which provides an analysis of global online regulation, analysing over 60 legislations and regulatory proposals in 17 jurisdictions and their implications for countering terrorist and violent extremist content. Throughout November and December 2021 we will continue updating this section on a regular basis to include the latest country analyses of the 2nd Edition of the Online Regulation Series.
     
  • Transparency Reporting:  
    We have added to our Key Recommendations and Guidelines for Transparency Reporting page to include the Tech Against Terrorism Guidelines on Transparency Reporting on Online Counterterrorism Efforts, for tech platforms and governments.
     
  • Policy Best Practice:  
    We have added to the Content Standards Benchmarks page to include an additional benchmarking table for online marketplace platforms.
     
  • Terrorist Use of the Internet & Proscribed Groups: 
    We have added to the Terrorist Use of the Internet page to include our recently published "Trends in Terrorist and Violent Extremist Use of the Internet Q1-Q2 2021" report. 
     
  • Resources Library:  
    We have added to our Third Party Resources page, to include the UNODC Electronic Evidence Hub and some of its key example resources and tools, such as the Data Disclosure Framework and the Model Forms on Preservation and Disclosure of Electronic Data. We have also added to the Tech Against Terrorism Webinars section, to include the latest webinars that we have organised together with the GIFCT. 
     
  • In the coming weeks, we will be reviewing and updating pre-existing resources to ensure that they are accurate and up-to-date. Stay tuned for upcoming communications about the next round of updates! 

ICYMI

  • Our founder, Adam Hadley, spoke at the Australian Senate Inquiry about the Abhorrent Violent Material Act. His statement focused on the use of small platforms by terrorist actors, adversarial shift of terrorist actors away from large, more moderated platforms, and extra-territorial implications of the proposed legislation.  
     
  • Our TCAP Product Manager, Sophie Laitt, participated in the Safety Tech Innovation Network “101” series last month, offering expertise on how websites and platforms can take simple steps to protect themselves from terrorist content. Safety Tech published their summary of the event this November.  
     
  • Thank you for joining our webinar on “Countering terrorist use of the internet, moderating online content, and safeguarding human rights.” If you were unable to attend and would like access to a recording of this webinar, please get in touch with us at contact@techagainstterrorism.org. Agenda: 
    • Johannah Lowin, Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Initiatives, GIFCT 
    • Jennifer Bramlette, Legal Officer and ICT Coordinator, UNCTED 
    • Jason Pielemeier, Deputy Director, Global Network Initiative (GNI) 
    • Dunstan Allison-Hope, Vice President, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) 
    • Moderator: Maygane Janin, Senior Research Analyst, Tech Against Terrorism

What's up next?

  • Next week, we will publish our TCAP Newsletter for November. This will be a special edition, covering the first full year of the TCAP, with information on our statistics, development, and key information.  
     
  • Keep an eye out for our TCAP Transparency Report, to be published soon, outlining the first year of the TCAP. The report will cover the metrics, policies, and development details of the first 12 months of the TCAP to ensure we meet out principle of transparency by design.

Tech Against Terrorism Reader's Digest – 3 December

Our weekly review of articles on terrorist and violent extremist use of the internet, counterterrorism, digital rights, and tech policy. 

Top Stories

  • The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and United Nations Counter Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UN CTED) have announced their introductory webinar series for the Data Disclosure Framework. The framework seeks to provide start-ups, smaller companies and micro-platforms with the confidence to lawfully respond to requests for data in counter-terrorism investigations, whilst respecting the right to privacy. You can register here.  
     
  • An Indian Parliamentary panel has called for the establishment of a social media regulator. This regulatory body would seek to hold platforms accountable for all user-generated content.
     
  • Europol’s EU Internet Referral Unit has announced to have facilitated over 20 website removals in the UK and Germany for disseminating propaganda from Islamic State and al-Qaeda. During this referral action, Europol flagged over 50 websites for removal to infrastructure providers.  
     
  • TikTok and UN Women have launched an in-app campaign to raise awareness for gender-based violence.  
     
  • TikTok has published a Goverment Removal Request Report, detailing the requests they have had from governments to remove content, and the action they have taken as a response, covering January 2019 to June 2021.  
     
  • Meta has announced that they will share an archive of content removed from their platforms with academics in order to increase transparency around content removal practices. The archive will be composed of content removed under their “coordinated inauthentic behavior” policy.  
     
  • An internal document from the Unites States Federal Bureau of Investigation lists the types of data the organisation is able to collect from popular messaging apps, including encrypted apps. To read more about encryption, please see our report on Terrorist Use of E2EE.
     
  • The George Washington University Program on Extremism has released a report comparing the ideologies of Salafi-Jihadism and White Supremacist extremism. 

Tech Policy

  • Britain throws down gauntlet to EU in Big Tech crackdown: This week, the UK competition watchdog ordered Meta to sell the popular animated images platform GIPHY, stating that it would improve competition and innovation in digital advertising. This is the first big move against a large tech company seeking to block an acquisition. The authors state that whilst the UK may be taking more action than the EU on competition authority, there is less difference between the UK and the EU when comparing other areas of digital regulation. A prime example of other areas of tech sector regulation is online content moderation and governance, with legislation on regulating online content to be passed in both jurisdictions – the Online Safety Bill (OSB) in the UK and the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the EU. The authors conclude that the upcoming draft bills from both the UK and the EU on online content are highly competitive and have the potential to be leaders in setting the standards for global online regulation. (Vincent Manancourt, Annabelle Dickson and Samuel Stolton, Politico, 01.12.2021). 

    To read more about online regulation, you can see our Online Regulation Handbook, or our recent blog posts for the Online Regulation Series 2.0. 

For any questions or media requests, please get in touch via:
contact@techagainstterrorism.org