This piece follows up on the recent exposure of a web of NGOs pervasively entwined with the US and foreign governments to suppress conservative speech in the US and allied countries.
The hellish triad of the Tech against Terrorism (TAT), the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), and its “research” arm Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), need more attention. Although TAT and GIFCT have the word terrorism in their names, they expanded the scope of their targeting to what they call ‘violent extremism‘. The phrase ‘violent extremism’ is a code word for robust conservatism. GNET produces pseudo-scientific texts teaching and justifying crackdowns on conservative speech in violation of the First Amendment and US laws, including anti-trust.
TAT was founded in the summer of 2017 by Google YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft. It was funded by a number of foreign governments. TAT created GIFCT. GIFCT created GNET.
These groups took an active part in the suppression of conservative and Republican speech in the US. Since 2018, they have been interfering in the US elections against the Republican Party and President Trump.
There is evidence of pressure exerted on the Big Tech corporations involved with these NGOs by the European Commission. Big Tech executives acted under the control and directions of EU governments.
The US government did not take part in the funding or directing these groups until the Biden administration, which joined foreign governments in these activities. The following are some links and examples of the material from the websites of these NGOs, with a few remarks. The internal links have been removed. Emphasis is added in some places.
Tech against Terrorism
https://techagainstterrorism.org/about (https://archive.is/Wc0af) – currently
“To date, a number of democratic governments, including Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom have financially supported Tech Against Terrorism.”
“Tech Against Terrorism is supported by UN Counter-Terrorism Directorate. We work with the UN system to promote improved global and human rights centred responses to terrorist use of the internet.”
“Tech Against Terrorism is a supporter of the Christchurch Call to Action and a member of the EU Internet Forum. We are also members of the Airbnb Trust and Safety Council. Tech Against Terrorism also supported the establishment of Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) led Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube. Now Tech Against Terrorism partners with the industry-led body through Tech Against Terrorism’s Mentorship Programme.”
Past
https://web.archive.org/web/20170428005840/http://www.techagainstterrorism.org/
“A joint project by the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate and ICT4Peace Foundation”
https://web.archive.org/web/20170605121900/http://www.techagainstterrorism.org/reports/report_en.pdf
“A project sponsored by the Governments of Spain and Switzerland, ICT For Peace Foundation & Facebook, Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab.”
GIFCT
https://web.archive.org/web/20180710115005/https://gifct.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230075105/https://gifct.org/
“The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism brings together the technology industry, government, civil society, and academia to foster collaboration and information-sharing to counter terrorist and violent extremist activity online.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20210117192003/https://gifct.org/working-groups/
“Crisis Response
Collaborating across industry, government, and first-responders to minimize the spread of terrorist or violent extremist content online stemming from a real-world event…”
https://web.archive.org/web/20191227182606/https://gifct.org/leadership/
“On June 26, 2017, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube formed the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), which formalizes and structures how our companies will work together to curtail the spread of terrorism and violent extremism on our hosted consumer services. In 2019, Dropbox, Amazon, LinkedIn and WhatsApp became the newest member of the GIFCT.
The GIFCT builds on existing cooperation within industry including the work of the EU Internet Forum, and will foster collaboration with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU and the UN.”
GNET
https://web.archive.org/web/20210804130430/https://gnet-research.org/about/
“The Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) is an academic research initiative backed by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), an independent but industry-funded initiative for better understanding, and counteracting, terrorist use of technology.
GNET is convened and led by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), a globally renowned academic research centre based within the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.”
“ ‘We Don’t Co-parent with the Government’: Gender Ideology as a Global Culture War
Practitioners and tech companies need to recognise mainstream and seemingly innocuous concerns about parental rights or school curricula can serve as a gateway to the dangerous realm of ‘anti-gender ideology’ – a highly nationalist discourse with a global reach.”
2021
Notice the focus on the alleged ‘far right extremism’. The article includes President Trump and Truth Social in the ‘far-right’. It attempts to build theoretical foundation for deplatforming non leftist not only from social media, but also from web hosting.
“The Rise of the Far-Right Web”
In October 2021 the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced the establishment of a new social media platform – ‘Truth’.”
“In turn platforms like Gab, Parler, Gettr and Truth are becoming problems that we need to comprehend. Their rise suggests that bans simply cannot cut it as a solution to hate online – the web is too unregulated, and individuals and groups can move elsewhere. As Bharath Ganesh argues “without a consensus across all web hosts, it is almost impossible to prevent the migration of digital hate culture to other, less-regulated web hosts.”
If we want to address hate online therefore we need to be more creative, tackling the causes of the issues, not just the outcomes. Proper engagement, particularly with those on the margins, is needed to turn people down a different path. We cannot deregulate ourselves out of the problem.”
2020
https://web.archive.org/web/20201118120003/https://gnet-research.org/partners/
More
ICT4Peace & GNI
https://ict4peace.org/about-us/history/
On 27 July 2012 the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted ICT4Peace Special Consultative Status. The ECOSOC Consultative Status enables ICT4Peace it to actively engage with the ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, as well as with the United Nations General Assembly, Secretariat, UN Agencies, funds and programmes, including consulting with Member States and the United Nations system at large…
https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/