North America Workshop: Countering Terrorism & Violent Extremism Online

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, Tech Against Terrorism, and the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence are pleased to invite you to join the “North America Workshop on Countering Terrorism & Violent Extremism Online” on March 21st-23rd, 2023 in Ottawa, Canada.

This workshop is applicable for tech companies, practitioners, academics, experts, and government agents interested in how terrorist and violent extremist networks exploit technology and the various ways multiple sectors are working together in countering this exploitation online, while respecting human rights. The workshop will analyze the state-of-play in terrorist and violent extremist trends online, outline models for public-private partnerships, and discuss tactics for effectively countering terrorism and violent extremism online.

Please note that all sessions will be held under Chatham House Rules, encouraging openness of discussion and facilitating the sharing of information.

This is a hybrid event, so please register for attending in-person or online. Please also state if you might need financial support to attend in person.

*** Please note the exact timings of the sessions will be provided closer to the date***

Register now!

About the organizers: 

Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT): Terrorist and violent extremist exploitation of the Internet threatens open societies everywhere. The mission of GIFCT is to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms. Founded by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube in 2017, the Forum was designed to foster technical collaboration among member companies, advance relevant research, and share knowledge with smaller platforms. Since 2017, GIFCT’s membership has expanded beyond the founding companies to include over a dozen diverse platforms committed to cross-industry efforts to counter the spread of terrorist and violent extremist content online. Due to its increased reach and remit, GIFCT relaunched as an independent NGO in 2020, with its own dedicated technology, counterterrorism, and operations teams.

Tech Against Terrorism (TaT): TaT works with the tech sector to tackle the terrorist use of the internet whilst respecting human rights. Specifically, it works with smaller tech platforms to share best practice with regards to content moderation, terms of service, transparency reporting. Furthermore, TaT provides practical support to help securitize and protect smaller platforms from terrorist usage. Tech Against Terrorism was launched and is supported by the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED) pursuant to UN Security Council Resolutions. TaT works closely with GIFCT to build capacity across the global tech sector.

The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre) was created in 2017 to lead a government-wide approach to prevent and counter radicalization. Its focus is on non-security/non-enforcement approaches to prevention, and is informed by approaches and lessons from fields like crime prevention, community safety and wellbeing, social work, and public health. The Canada Centre provides leadership, coordinates resources and expertise, mobilizes and supports community outreach and enhances research in the area of countering radicalization to violence (CRV). While there are many partnering agencies and departments within the Government of Canada who contribute to the prevention of radicalization to violence, the Canada Centre provides national-level coordination and funding to increase expertise and capacity for CRV in Canada.

Host or Publisher Tech Against Terrorism