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Reader's Digest – 2 December 2022

Saqeb Mueen Dec 2, 2022 11:19:24 AM

News

2nd December 2022

Our end-of-month newsletter with updates from all three teams.

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For Your Diary

Webinar Alert!
Year in Review: 2022 Trends in Terrorist and Violent Extremist Use of the Internet and the Online Counterterrorism Response
Thursday, 15 December 2022

Join us for our final webinar of our 2022 e-Learning series in partnership with GIFCT. Please stay tuned for upcoming agenda details.

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Highlights

  • Our latest podcast is out! We cover the work of our Open Source Intelligence Team. 
  • This week the UK government gave further updates on the proposed Online Safety Bill. A reminder of our take here. 
  • Earlier this month, the Tech Against Terrorism Team participated in the Commonwealth’s virtual forums for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The team covered violent extremist use of the internet in APAC, the removal of terrorist content, legal responses to terrorist use of the internet and measures to promote better cooperation across the tech ecosystem.

Team Updates

Research Team

This month

  • The Research Team has been working on a project analysing patterns of tech platform exploitation. We will be visualising submission and alert data from our Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP), exploring how terrorist and violent extremist exploitation varies varies according to tech platform type, size, and geographic location. 
  • The 26th of November marked the second-year anniversary of the TCAP. We marked this milestone with a special anniversary newsletter you can read more here. 

Forthcoming

  • The Research team is also working on an analysis of far-right lone-actor terrorist attacks and violent extremist use of file-sharing platforms. The analysis will reflect on the recent 12 October attack in Bratislava, and wider patterns of terrorist exploitation of smaller file-sharing platforms to disseminate propaganda.  

Our Research team examines terrorist and violent extremist behaviour online. Through our research outputs we support cross-sector engagement to counter the threat. Alongside our reports, we also produce the Tech Against Terrorism Podcast.

OSINT TEAM


This week on the Tech Against Terrorism podcast, we’re taking you behind the scenes to learn more about the work of our Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Analysts who are responsible for tracking, analysing and alerting terrorist and violent extremist activity online. We share what a typical day in the life of an OSINT analyst looks like, some of the considerations around their work and what skills you need for a career in OSINT.  The latest episode is available  here.  

Briefings

  • Europol Workshop, 11 November
    Arthur Bradley, OSINT Manager participated in a closed-door workshop organised by Europol and Swansea University in Swansea, UK. The workshop included discussion of methods and key challenges in tracking and disrupting terrorist use of the internet, including analyst safety and mental health safeguards. 
  • Aqaba Process, 22-23 November
    Arthur Bradley also gave a briefing at the Aqaba Process tech meeting organised by the governments of Jordan, Indonesia and Australia in Bali, Indonesia. He delivered presentations on Tech Against Terrorism’s assessment of the online threat landscape, our work countering this via the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP), and introductions to Tech Against Terrorism teams.

Forthcoming

  • Arthur will also present on Tech Against Terrorism’s response to the attack in Buffalo, US that took place in May 2022, at an event co-organised by Ofcom and the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at Kings College London on 6 December.  
  • The OSINT Team is currently writing the first of our annual reports which will analyse terrorist and violent extremist use of the internet over 2022. Keep an eye out for our report launch in January 2023!

Our Open- Source Intelligence (OSINT) team conduct analysis of the threat from terrorist and violent extremist use of the internet and alert tech platforms to the presence of terrorist content on their platforms. 

Policy Advisory and Response (PAR) Team

This month

Briefings

  • RUSI Project CRAAFT conference in Brussels, 15 November
    Maygane Janin, Policy Manager, presented on the use of non-financial service for terrorist financing purposes and how terrorist financing is increasingly crossing over with propaganda.
  • European Union Internet Forum (EUIF), 16 November
    Maygane also delivered a statement about the threat of terrorist operated websites, and the related terrorist financing risks.
  • XII Central Asian Forum,17 November
    Chamin Herath, Senior Policy Analyst spoke about the human rights implications of using internet shutdowns as a counterterrorism response.   
  • Bread&Net 2022,17 November
    Grace Rollison, Junior Policy Analyst highlighted the global tech sectors' online counterterrorism approach to safeguarding human rights.
  • Internet Governance Forum 2022, 30 November  
    Grace also spoke about global online regulation at the Internet Governance Forum 2022. Watch here. 

Forthcoming

  • We are currently writing a summary report following our roundtable series on terrorist use of end-to-end encrypted services.The report will focus on identifying mitigation strategies against terrorist exploitation of encryption whilst also safeguarding E2EE and the fundamental right to privacy.  
  • We are also continuing work on the third edition of the Online Regulation Series. The ORS 3.0 will expand our regulatory analysis to new countries, provide updates on legislation included in the first and second editions, and include an interactive regulatory map. Watch this space! 

Our Policy Advisory and Response team provide online counterterrorism policy support to tech companies through bespoke platform mentorship and Knowledge Sharing Platform.

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