The United Nations’ Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee recently held an open meeting on "Countering Terrorist Narratives & Preventing the Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes".
The main objective of the meeting was to review global developments in countering terrorist narratives, and to encourage States to better align their efforts in countering terrorist narratives with the Comprehensive International Framework and guidelines.
To achieve this, the meeting was divided into two key segments, covering:
- Trends and developments in terrorist narratives, looking specifically at prevention measures.
- Public-private partnerships and whole-of-society approaches to countering terrorist narratives and incitement to terrorism, focusing on intervention measures.
With this collaborative approach in mind, the Committee specifically drew attention to Tech Against Terrorism Europe, and how their work could be seen as best practice. Adam Hadley, Executive Director of Tech Against Terrorism, said:
We work extensively with several countries and regulators to promote best practice in terms of how online regulation is being adopted by the tech sector.
Foremost amongst this is an initiative that we are helping to implement on behalf of the European Union and funded by the European Commission called Tech Against Terrorism Europe (TATE), which works with tech companies offering services in the EU to help promote best practice regarding the EU’s new Terrorist Content Online (TCO) regulation.
TATE itself is a great example of a successful partnership since it is delivered jointly by a consortium of entities across the EU consisting of Tech Against Terrorism, Dublin City University, Ghent University, the JOS Project, LMU Munich, Swansea University and Saher.
Tech Against Terrorism Europe is a consortium of partners that will scale up its expertise, network and technologies to support smaller hosting service providers (HSPs) in disrupting terrorist content online whilst respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
All tech companies offering their services in the European Union are now required to take action against terrorist content found on their platforms. HSPs must remove terrorist content within one hour of receiving a removal order. Tech Against Terrorism Europe supports tech companies in complying with the EU’s TCO regulation and countering the terrorist threat.