Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism

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The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) is an Internet industry initiative to share proprietary information and technology for automated content moderation. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Founded in 2017 by a consortium of companies spearheaded by Facebook (now known as Meta), Google/YouTube, Microsoft and Twitter (now known as X), it was created as an organization in 2019 and its membership has expanded to include 18 companies as of the end of 2021. [3] The GIFCT began as a shared hash database of ISIS-related material but expanded to included a wider array of violent extremist content in the wake of the attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that was live streamed on Facebook. [4]

Members include Microsoft, Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), YouTube, Twitter, Airbnb, Discord, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Amazon, Mailchimp, Pinterest, JustPaste.it, Tumblr, WordPress.com and Zoom. [5]

GIFCT maintains a database of perceptual hashes of terrorism-related videos and images that is submitted by its members, and which other members can voluntarily use to block the same material on their platforms. [5] The material indexed includes images, videos and will be expanded to include URLs and textual data such as manifestos and other documents. [6]

Global Network on Extremism and Technology

The Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) is described as the "academic research arm of GIFCT". [7] [8] It is a collaboration of several academic research centers, led by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London. [9]

Criticism

Evelyn Douek of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, writing for the Institute website in 2020, and Emma Llansó, the Director of Center for Democracy & Technology’s Free Expression Project, writing in Techdirt in 2020, described GIFCT as a "content cartel" similar to YouTube's Content ID, [1] and a potential tool for "cross-platform censorship". [2] GIFCT was questioned in a joint letter by human rights groups on removals of evidence of war crimes. [10]

Accusations of misuse

In 2022, Facebook, Inc., a subsidiary of Meta Platforms, was subject to a subpoena about GIFCT usage as OnlyFans was alleged to have used GIFCT to harm competitors by getting their content and accounts censored on Instagram. [11] Facebook and OnlyFans have described these allegations as being "without merit". [12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Evelyn Douek (2020-02-11). "The Rise of Content Cartels". Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  2. 1 2 Llanso, Emma (2020-08-21). "Content Moderation Knowledge Sharing Shouldn't Be A Backdoor To Cross-Platform Censorship". Techdirt . Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  3. ↑ "GIFCT Annual Report 2021" (PDF). GIFCT.org. Global Internet Forum for Counter Terrorism. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  4. ↑ Radsch, Courtney (20 September 2020). "GIFCT: Possibly the Most Important Acronym You've Never Heard Of". Just Security. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 "GIFCT Membership". GIFCT. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Culliford, Elizabeth (2021-07-26). "Facebook and tech giants to target attacker manifestos, far-right militias in database". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-02-23.
  7. ↑ "Research". Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
  8. ↑ GNET Official website
  9. ↑ "Partners". GNET-research.org. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
  10. ↑ "Joint Letter to New Executive Director, Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism | Human Rights Watch". Human Rights Watch . 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  11. ↑ "OnlyFans accused of conspiring to blacklist rivals". BBC News . 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
  12. ↑ "OnlyFans Allegedly Bribed Meta to Put Adult Stars on Terrorist Watchlist". PAPER. 2022-08-11. Retrieved 2022-10-13.


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