Annexes

Tech Against Terrorism’s Resources

Knowledge Sharing Platform

https://ksp.techagainstterrorism.org/#:~:text=The%20Knowledge%20Sharing%20Platform%20is,effective%20and%20human%20rights%20compliant

The Knowledge Sharing Platform is a platform developed by Tech Against Terrorism to provide smaller tech companies with interactive tools and resources designed to support their operational and policy-oriented efforts toward developing and implementing an effective and human rights-compliant counterterrorism response.

The Policy Best Practice Section includes pages on helping you define content to create clear boundaries of prohibition, including:

The Knowledge Sharing Platform also contains a dedicated section on transparency reporting.

Online Regulation Series | The Handbook

https://ksp.techagainstterrorism.org/

The Online Regulation Series Handbook provides an analysis of global online regulation, analysing over 60 legislative and regulatory proposals in 17 countries, along with their implications for countering terrorist and violent extremist content.

The Handbook is based on analysis published throughout October and November 2020 for the first edition of our Online Regulation Series. All country analyses have been updated to reflect recent regulatory changes. For each country, we provide a summary of the regulatory framework and the most relevant insights for tech platforms, as well as Tech Against Terrorism’s commentary.

Terrorist Use of End-to-End Encryption

https://www.techagainstterrorism.org/2021/09/07/terrorist-use-of-e2ee-state-of-play-misconceptions-and-mitigation-strategies/

In September 2021, Tech Against Terrorism published a landmark report entitled Terrorist Use of E2EE: State of Play, Misconceptions, and Mitigation Strategies on a topic which has become a central area of concern for policymakers and tech companies alike, since both are charged with the challenge of stopping the exploitation of this technology while upholding commitments to privacy and human rights. Our report provides a comprehensive overview of the risks and mitigation strategies relevant to terrorist and violent extremist use of online services offering end-to-end encryption, with a focus on communication services. Our report on terrorist and violent extremist use of E2EE was published as the starting point of a necessary conversation on risk mitigation strategies which compromise neither encryption nor the right to privacy.

External Resources

Rikke Frank Jørgensen (ed.) Human Rights in the Age of Platforms (2019)

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

https://www.bsr.org/

BSR is an impact-driven sustainability organisation which works with a global network of leading companies to conduct human rights assessments both to inform strategy and to position companies to fulfil their responsibility to respect human rights. BSR has outlined a human rights-based approach to content governance, which incorporates the UNGPs. This approach to content governance can be segmented into four parts:

  • Content policy: statements about what content is and is not allowed on a social media platform, as well as about the visibility of content.
  • Content policy implementation: how content decisions are executed in practice.
  • Product development: how new features, services, and functionalities are introduced and evolve.
  • Tracking and transparency: how the outcomes and effectiveness of a human rights-based approach is measured and communicated.

Global Partners Digital (GPD)

https://www.gp-digital.org/

In addition to BSR’s research and recommendations, GPD has published a guide on “A Rights-Respecting Model of Online Content Regulation by Platforms”, which illuminates how international human rights standards can inform tech sector policy and practice. The guide proposes a model of online content regulation comprising three stages: the development of Terms of Service, the implementation of the Terms of Service, and the establishment of a grievance and remedial mechanism.

The Global Network Initiative (GNI)

https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/

Companies participating in the GNI are independently assessed every two to three years on their progress in implementing the GNI Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy. To date, GNI has completed three assessment cycles. GNI communicates the outcome of the assessment process at the conclusion of the review process and releases a public assessment report. Beyond their own advisory councils’ statements and publications, companies such as Google and Facebook have also publicly committed to memberships of organisations committed to protecting users’ rights including the Global Network Initiative.

Ranking Digital Rights (RDR)

https://rankingdigitalrights.org/

RDR works to promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet by creating global standards and incentives for companies to respect and protect users’ rights. Each year, RDR evaluates and ranks a number of tech and telecom companies on their commitment to respecting users’ fundamental rights, and on the mechanisms they have in place to ensure those promises are kept. RDR’s methodology is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and comprises 58 human rights-based indicators in three categories—governance, freedom of expression, and privacy—and also provides opportunities for companies to give feedback. RDR’s standards, which have been adapted for corporate accountability research around the world, comprise more than 300 questions assessing companies’ transparency and enforcement practices and are informed by relevant literature, case studies and best practices, and human rights risk scenarios that anticipate potential harms that can result from poor company policies and practices.

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism

https://gifct.org/

In 2019 the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) announced that it would become an organisation independent from its parent companies. This move was formalised in 2020 with the hiring of its first Executive Director, Nicholas Rasmussen. In December 2021, GIFCT partnered with BSR to conduct a human rights assessment of the GIFCT, in order to inform their actions to position universal and fundamental human rights at the centre of their strategic planning and programmatic activities. BSR’s human rights assessment focused on identifying and making recommendations to address possible adverse human rights impacts, and the report also emphasises the potential of GIFCT to facilitate the realisation of human rights, including to life, liberty, security, and freedom of expression, among others. BSR has offered a series of recommendations on how to pursue rights-respecting approaches to achieving GIFCT’s mission of preventing terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms. BSR offered 47 concrete recommendations to GIFCT to include membership, organisational governance, content removal and preservation, and consideration of terrorist and violent extremist content, among others. In response to this, GIFCT has outlined in a roadmap the commitments it intends to make over the short, medium, and longer term.