GIFCT and Member Resources

Resources in this Guide

This guide to GIFCT and Member Resources discusses the different ways tech companies approach and fulfill GIFCT’s membership criteria and presents links to all relevant member company resources related to this criteria. This guide is designed to support tech companies, civil society groups, governments, and academic researchers interested in learning about GIFCT member company efforts to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms. In addition to resources developed by members, this guide also highlights resources produced by GIFCT, and its partners where relevant, that have helped guide companies in furthering their commitment to the GIFCT membership criteria.

Section 1: GIFCT Member Efforts to Counter Terrorism and Violent Extremism Online and GIFCT Support

Publicly Available Policies

This section provides an overview of GIFCT and member efforts in support of GIFCT’s first membership criterion: terms of service, community guidelines, or other publicly available policies that explicitly prohibit terrorist and/or violent extremist activity.

Links to member company policies can be found in Appendix B, showing the diversity of ways in which member companies approach this criterion.

Most digital platforms require users to agree to set Community Guidelines, Standards and/or Terms of Service (ToS) before accessing that platform’s tools and services. A criterion for GIFCT membership is that members must explicitly prohibit terrorist and/or violent extremist activity on their services. This framing should exist in publicly available policies, such as their ToS or Community Guidelines. GIFCT does not provide exact language that must be used, respecting that platforms might have slightly different policy framing. However, GIFCT can and does provide guidance and support to companies developing this language.

Policies often referred to as Community Guidelines or Standards, establish the set of rules for what type of content or activity is prohibited on a platform. In most cases, these policies clarify that violations can lead to content removal, account suspension, or other penalties.

ToS are used to ensure that users understand their rights and responsibilities when using a platform, and provide a clear framework for resolving disputes that may arise. Usually, ToS cover issues beyond the scope of Community Guidelines such as liability, privacy, and intellectual property, and are necessary to ensure that the platform operates in a fair and transparent manner. While some companies have both Community Guidelines and ToS, others may only have ToS. Some may have more extensive policies beyond Community Guidelines that users are required to follow.

Most companies design, review, and update their ToS and guidelines based on feedback from a range of stakeholders that might include their users, government bodies, and global experts in fields such as technology, public safety, and human rights. Company policies and the methods that companies use to communicate those policies are diverse, reflecting the needs of each digital platform and their user audience. Some companies share policies in video format, creating supplemental policy explainers in plain language, or embedding a Code of Conduct within a game environment.

Defining Terrorism and Violent Extremism

There is no universally agreed legal, academic, or technical working definition of terrorism or violent extremism. While definitions of terrorism put forward by governments are debated, there are even fewer public working definitions of violent extremism by governments or international bodies, as seen in the Definitional Frameworks and Principles Map. A complex framework of UN Security Council resolutions outlines terrorism-related acts that should be criminalized, though states vary in their degree of domestication. It should be noted that UN Security Council Resolution 1566 (2004) makes some headway to gathering elements of a definition of terrorism in an internationally agreed framework.

Most tech companies have independently developed definitions and approaches based on existing resources and in consideration of the specificities of their platforms. Tech companies may rely on guidance provided by national and international law and policies, including the UN Security Council’s Consolidated Sanction’s List, as a reference for groups and individuals subject to international counterterrorism sanctions. GIFCT does not offer a prescriptive definition of terrorism or extremism but instead supports tech companies and the wider counterterrorism and counter extremism community in raising awareness of how other states or actors have defined terrorism through its Definitional Frameworks and Principles Project. GIFCT has also developed both list-based and behavior-based approaches to the inclusion criteria of the Hash Sharing Database.

GIFCT’s Support

GIFCT offers policy consultations for current and prospective member companies to develop, enhance, or refine publicly available policies explicitly prohibiting terrorism and/or violent extremism. This can include support from GIFCT staff by directly working with policy teams, or connecting them to global experts through partners like GNET, depending on the needs of the company. Support is offered to current and prospective members regardless of organizational type, size, location, or maturity.
GIFCT also works with multi-stakeholder partners to produce resources for member companies. Understanding the difficulties tech companies can sometimes face in applying government definitions or designation lists, GIFCT has worked with its multi-stakeholder Working Groups, for example, to launch products to help guide companies such as:
- A Definitional Frameworks and Principles website comparing international government definitions of terrorism and violent extremism. This website contains:
  - Global Definitions of Terrorism: a comparative and interactive map
  - Behavioral Definitions of Terrorism: an interactive tool to compare behavioral definition elements used globally
  - Risk Mitigation in Applying Government Terrorist Designation Lists: a supplement for consideration listing pros and cons of terrorist designation lists. This supplement also outlines some risk mitigation tactics for tech companies to consider while reviewing and potentially applying government terrorist designation lists.

Videos to help tech companies and the wider counterterrorism and counter-extremism community in understanding, developing, and applying definitions of terrorism and violent extremism through animated explainers on:
- What is Terrorism? outlines the wide spectrum of definitions of terrorism and violent extremism across the globe and shares recommendations for tech platforms that utilize terrorism definitions in their policy creation.
- The Impact of Legal Definitions of Terrorism explores the ways in which designation lists have unintentionally caused the stigmatization of a particular religious community and overly impacted the Muslim community.

An analysis on the Interoperability of Terrorism Definitions (2022).

Safety and Reporting

This section provides an overview of GIFCT and member efforts in support of GIFCT’s second membership criterion: the ability to receive, review, and act on both reports of activity that is illegal and/or violated terms of service and user appeals.

Links to member company safety hubs and reporting information can be found in Appendix B, showing the diversity of ways in which member companies approach this criterion.

All GIFCT members must have a functional way to receive, review, and act on user reports of illegal activity or activity that violates their policies. Approaches differ by company type and user needs, but all GIFCT member companies provide public resources and tools to assist users in reporting illegal and prohibited activity and content. Most members also allow users to appeal the resulting action that a company takes to remove content or restrict a user.

The majority of GIFCT member companies have safety portals or hubs which bring together policies, reporting options, and instructions to guide users in reporting content or activities. Some safety portals provide targeted content for different audiences, such as information for parents, teachers, or law enforcement. Basic options for reporting include a publicly available email address or direct contact portal by which users may contact the company and report activity in violation of the platform’s policies. Member companies consider company ability, user needs, and product type when developing reporting options.

GIFCT’s Approach

Safety across digital platforms is a shared industry responsibility and efforts are furthered by a range of stakeholders in the private sector along with, academic researchers, civil society, governmental and intergovernmental actors. Fostering multi-stakeholder engagement to further safety objectives is one of GIFCT’s foundational goals. When different stakeholders work together to address this ever evolving and complex challenge, we see progress that would be difficult for any one entity to achieve alone.

Safety tools and risk mitigation strategies need to evolve with the changing threat landscape. GIFCT participates in external dialogues and international commitments with bodies such as the United Nations Counterterrorism Executive Directorate, the European Union Internet Forum, and the Christchurch Call to Action, among others, to ensure our work is informed by global perspectives on threats and needs.

GIFCT recognizes that activists, academics, journalists, and practitioners in the counterterrorism and counter-extremism space often must mitigate the risks to their personal safety online. GIFCT supports member company efforts to incorporate the perspectives of civil society and academia on these issues through thematic cross-sector Working Groups, regional events, and GIFCT’s academic research arm, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET). GIFCT’s Working Group’s have also provided recommendations on Good Practices, Tools, and Safety Measures for Researchers (2022).

Exploring New Technical Solutions

This section provides an overview of GIFCT and member efforts in support of GIFCT’s third membership criterion: a desire to explore new technical solutions to counter terrorist and violent extremist activity online.

GIFCT member companies often seek to utilize automated tools to detect and deter terrorist and/or violent extremist activity on their platforms. For many GIFCT member companies, the majority of terrorist or violent extremist activity on their platforms is detected, and removed, through automated tools rather than user reporting. GIFCT member companies utilize or express interest in engaging with a variety of technical tools to detect and deter terrorist and violent extremist activity online.

Transparency

This section provides an overview of GIFCT and member efforts in support of GIFCT’s fourth membership criterion: regular, public data transparency reports.

Links to member company transparency reports can be found in Appendix B, showing the diversity of ways in which member companies approach this criterion.

Transparency is a core value in both principle and practice across GIFCT’s efforts to prevent, respond to, and share knowledge about terrorist exploitation of digital platforms. Accordingly, GIFCT members must publish an annual transparency report that reviews elements of how their policy guidelines are upheld and enforced.

Though exact format and content presentation vary from company to company, member transparency reports tend to provide data on basics around government data request processing and wider removal compliance. Transparency reporting for specific metrics may also be required by regional or national law. The granularity of data provided in these transparency reports varies according to a number of different factors, including greater resources and additional personnel to produce accurate and consistent transparency reports, as well as reporting by government entities, all of which support more robust efforts to detect, label, and review content. Some types of data included in member company transparency reports include:

Specific categories for terrorism and violent extremism content removals.
Data which combines the enforcement of community guidelines, content removal requests by governments and law enforcement, as well as how content might be restricted according to local laws.
Data focused on government and law enforcement requests.
Responses to reports made by users.

GIFCT’s Approach

Operating with transparency as a core value, GIFCT has a commitment to annual transparency reporting which allows us to inform our members, and the wider public, about our efforts so that we remain accountable to our mission and values. Accordingly, GIFCT has produced its own annual transparency reports since 2019, including our most recent 2023 Annual and Transparency Report.

Recognizing that tech companies, governments, and NGOs can always improve how they convey transparency and what is added to transparency data, GIFCT Working Groups made up of international, multi-sector stakeholders have produced outputs to guide GIFCT and tech companies in their efforts to be more transparent through outputs such as the below:

For tech companies seeking GIFCT membership that do not currently produce regular transparency reports, GIFCT provides staff and partnered support to facilitate the development of best practices around transparency in a way that works for the specific tech platform.

Commitment to Human Rights

This section provides an overview of GIFCT and member efforts in support of GIFCT’s fifth membership criterion: a public commitment to respecting human rights in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

Links to member company commitments to human rights can be found in Appendix B, showing the diversity of ways in which member companies approach this criterion.

Counterterrorism and human rights are complementary and mutually reinforcing goals. Preventing terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms enhances the protection, fulfillment, and realization of human rights. Achieving this alignment is not automatic, but requires a deliberate, inclusive, and sustained effort to embed human rights throughout counterterrorism efforts.

Supporting Civil Society Organizations to Challenge Terrorism and Violent Extremism

This section provides an overview of GIFCT and member efforts in support of GIFCT’s sixth membership criterion: support for expanding the capacity of civil society organizations to challenge terrorism and violent extremism.

Links to member company counterspeech, counter-narrative, and digital literacy resources can be found in Appendix B, showing the diversity of ways in which member companies approach this criterion.

Counterspeech, Positive Intervention, and Counter-Narrative Facilitation

Counterspeech efforts are a type of communication that aims to challenge or rebut hateful or violent speech. Counter-narrative and positive intervention efforts seek to offer and promote an alternative perspective to narratives that focus on hate and violence. Reporting mechanisms discussed in the Safety and Reporting section allow users to flag harm and policy violations that lead to the possible removal of content. However, content removal alone does not address the root causes of radicalization and hate-based extremism.

Many digital platforms house crucial tools for activists and practitioners to develop content and online activities advancing counterspeech, positive intervention, and counter narrative efforts. Efforts supported by tech companies often focus on helping activists and organizations produce, launch, and evaluate localized content to challenge engaging narratives created by violent extremists. Other forms of counterspeech aim to create friction between individuals searching for violent extremist content by proactively surfacing alternative voices or local resources for disengagement. These efforts rely on strong partnerships between tech companies and local civil society organizations around the world, reinforcing GIFCT’s belief that multi-sector collaboration is a critical element of effectively combating terrorism and extremism in online spaces.

Digital Literacy

Many practitioners and researchers have highlighted that preventing violent extremism fully includes improving digital literacy for online audiences. Digital literacy refers to a range of skills and information that allow individuals and organizations to safely and effectively operate in digital environments by questioning online information and having the tools to discern opinion from fact.

Some GIFCT member companies have built out substantial educational resources for digital literacy on their platforms. These resources provide in-depth information for users to make their online experiences (or the experiences of those they have responsibility for) safer.

GIFCT’s Support for Civil Society

GIFCT supports civil society organizations in their efforts to challenge terrorism and violent extremism through a number of resources:

GIFCT’s Campaign Toolkit provides a range of information on digital campaigns, from goal setting to audience targeting and impact measuring. Activists, NGOs, and practitioners can use the Campaign Toolkit to leverage the resources provided by many of our members to develop campaigns and counter-narrative projects.
GIFCT’s Working Groups support civil society by bringing together civil society, the technology industry, government, and academia to foster collaboration and information-sharing. Previous outputs to support CSOs and practitioners in their counter-extremism work includes:

GIFCT’s academic wing, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology routinely publishes work on counterspeech and counter-narrative deployment.

Section 2: Resource Links and GIFCT Membership

Appendix A: GIFCT Resources

GIFCT Resource	Link
Resources and Publications	Click to view
Transparency Reports	Click to view
Working Groups and Working Group Outputs	Click to view
GIFCT’s Academic Research Arm: Global Network on Extremism and Technology	Click to view
Human Rights Policy	Click to view
2019 Human Rights Impact Assessment	Click to view
GIFCT’s Hash-Sharing Database	Click to view
Definitions and Principles Framework Project	Click to view
Campaign Toolkit	Click to view
Events	Click to view
Technical Solutions Code of Conduct	Click to view
News	Click to view
Subscribe to Emails	Click to view

Appendix B: Member Company Resources

Click HERE to view GIFCT Member Company Resources.

This webpage provides a list of member company policies and resources in alignment with GIFCT’s membership criteria. Resources can be filtered by member company, member type, and membership criteria.

GIFCT Membership

Interested in GIFCT Membership?

Digital platforms seeking to join GIFCT must meet six criteria that allow us to deliver on our mission while maintaining our values. If your company does not meet certain requirements, GIFCT offers free development support towards meeting the following criteria:

Terms of service, community guidelines, or other publicly available policies that explicitly prohibit terrorist and/or violent extremist activity.
The ability to receive, review, and act on both reports of activity that is illegal and/or violated terms of service and user appeals.
A desire to explore new technical solutions to counter terrorist and violent extremist activity online.
Regular, public data transparency reports.
A public commitment to respecting human rights in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
Support for expanding the capacity of civil society organizations to challenge terrorism and violent extremism.

Membership Benefits

Potential access to GIFCT’s hash-sharing database and URL sharing program
Participation in crisis response communications around international terrorist and violent extremist events with online implications
Briefings from scholars associated with the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), the academic research arm of GIFCT
Briefings on technological approaches and solutions
Priority participation in topical workshops, e-learnings and webinars with global experts

For questions contact us at [email protected].

Apply for GIFCT Membership here.

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