Two UN Security Council Resolutions of December 2017 recognised the work of the ICT4Peace Foundation in launching the Tech Against Terrorism initiative in cooperation with UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED).
The objective of this initiative is to foster collaboration with representatives from the technology industry, including smaller technology companies, civil society, academia, and government to disrupt terrorists’ ability to use the internet in furtherance of terrorist purposes, while also respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The relevant paragraphs of and the full text of the two UN Security Council Resolutions of 21 December 2017 can be found here.
The ICT4Peace Foundation (ict4peace.org), is a Geneva based, non for profit organisation, promoting since 2004 the use ICTs for peaceful purposes and peace and security in the cyberspace.
Background
This successful co-operation started in December 2015, when ICT4Peace was invited by the United Nations in New York to moderate a panel discussion on Collaboration between Public and Private Sector to promote safety and counter messaging on the Internet, to prevent the recruitment of terrorists and incite terrorist acts, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. The panel session was organized by the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), and included panelists from inter alia Facebook, Microsoft, Tencent, Symantec. The program can be found here.
In April 2016, ICT4Peace and the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED) launched the first phase of the project: ‘Private Sector Engagement in Responding to the Use of the Internet and ICT for Terrorist Purposes: Strengthening Dialogue and Building Trust’. The objective of this project is to work with the technology sector and civil society to deepen understanding of current industry responses to terrorist use of their products and services, particularly with regard to content and-operational related issues and identify practices and experiences. This project is supported by the Governments of Korea, Spain and Switzerland, as well as Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Telefonica.
On the occasion of the Special Meeting of the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) held in New York on 1-2 December 2016, ICT4Peace and the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED) presented the report on the findings of the first phase of this project. The report can be accessed here. The report has been translated into Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish and Arabic and can be found here.
In February 2017, ICT4Peace provided an update to the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New York on the main findings and recommendations of joint UN CTED-ICT4Peace report and proposed that in phase 2 of the project, efforts will focus mainly on (i) continuing to strengthen dialogue on the emerging normative framework by means of multi-stakeholder engagement through the convening of a regular programme of global stakeholder workshops, and (ii) to establishing a Global Knowledge Sharing Platform (KSP) focused on emerging policies and effective practice. In general, the UN CTC welcomed the results of the phase one of the project and invited UN CTED and ICT4Peace to report back again in the fall of 2017.
On 1 August 2017 ICT4Peace and UN CTED through its joint project techagainstterrorism.org, (more details on its launch here) hosted the U.S. launch of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) at Swissnex in San Francisco. The United Kingdom Home Secretary and United States Acting Secretary of Homeland Security — as well as representatives from Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United Nations attended the meeting.On that occasion, representatives from the tech industry, government and non-governmental organizations came together to share information and best practices about how to counter the threat of terrorist content online.
On 29 November 2017 The UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED) and ICT4Peace officially launched the Tech Against Terrorism Knowledge Sharing Platform (KSP) at the UN Headquarters in New York.