Countering Terrorist Use of the Internet

A panel of experts reviews the main threats posed by online terrorism and violent extremism.
Almost a decade ago, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned the international community of the growing risks posed by the terrorist use of the internet and criticized the lack of universal instruments addressing this facet of terrorist activity.
Terrorist exploitation of the online environment remains an increasingly troubling global issue as digital platforms have been utilized by terrorist organizations to recruit their followers, communicate with their supporters and promote their activities.
For example, social media has been used to spread violence, showcase so-called ‘performance crimes’ and influence the public’s understanding of terrorist attacks and their aftermath.
Growing public and governmental pressures has pushed major social platforms to take concrete action leading to a new joint initiative - the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) - which maintains a shared database of terrorist and violent extremist content.
While these steps have prevented a number of terror images and videos from being shared, more needs to be done to prevent new content from being widely distributed.
What technical and diplomatic approaches can be deployed to prevent, respond to, and learn from, the abuse of digital platforms by terrorists and violent extremists? What is the responsibility of tech companies in responding to terrorist and violent extremist misuse of their platforms?
And how can multi-stakeholder engagement around such misuse of the internet be strengthened?
This webinar is co-hosted by Chatham House, Microsoft and the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).