The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
267. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) was founded in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube with the aim of preventing terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms by fostering technical collaboration among member companies and sharing knowledge with smaller platforms.[1] It cites three strategic pillars as central to its mission: Prevent, Respond and Learn.
268. GIFCT points to three key initiatives launched by the forum:
- The GIFCT hash database was launched in 2017 by the founding member companies, and comprises a shared industry database of 'hashes'—unique digital
'fingerprints'—of known violent terrorist or violent extremist content associated with organisations listed on the UN Terrorist Sanctions list.
- URL sharing involves terrorist content being shared on one platform, with a link to content that is hosted on another platform. GIFCT began a programme in January 2019 to implement its own link sharing system—when a GIFCT company receives an indicator that the link leads to terrorist related content, the company now has a safe mechanism to share the URL links with the industry partner to whom the content belongs. This one-to-one sharing allows the notified platforms to review the link to decide if the content is violating its terms of service.
- The Content Incident Protocol (CIP) is a process by which GIFCT member companies become aware of, assess and act on potential content circulating online as a result of a real-world terrorist or extremist event, as well as the potential distribution of that content. In addition, all hashes of any video footage produced by the attacker(s) are shared in the GIFCT database.
269. The UK plays an active role in the GIFCT,[2] and Homeland Security Group acts as the government representative (noting that it is important to be able to counter the ERWT online challenge through "an international prism").[3] They observed that "we were really in at the birth of it [GIFCT] so we were part of the kind of policy driver that sought to encourage both other countries and the major players to take part in it".[4]
270. Homeland Security Group advised that, in the event of a UK terrorist attack, they will initiate a crisis response in the online space, collaborating with individual CSPs, the GIFCT and UK law enforcement, to ensure swift removal of any affiliated terrorist content, including attacker manifestos and live-streamed attack videos. Homeland Security Group pointed to the live-streaming of the Christchurch attack in 2019 as the catalyst for this change in approach by these companies, telling the Committee:
It has been unquestionably the most celebrated attack in the Right-Wing Extremist circles. The companies immediately saw, to be frank, that this
- ↑ The membership of GIFCT has since expanded to also include: Mailchimp, Discord, Instagram, Whatsapp, Pinterest, Amazon, Dropbox, Mega, Linkedin, YouTube, Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook.
- ↑ The other governments represented on the GIFCT are: Canada, France, Ghana, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. The European Union is also represented (Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs). The United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate has observer status. See www.gifet.org
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Office, 28 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Office, 29 April 2021.
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