January 2020 Update

Headline News

• From October to December 2019, Tech Against Terrorist conducted an online public consultation process on the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP), which Tech Against Terrorism is currently building with support from the government of Canada. The consultation process solicited feedback from experts across the tech, academia, and civil society sectors to better understand user requirements and potential areas of concern

• As we look to 2020, we have also taken the time to look back at 2019 accomplishments: from strengthening of our OSINT capabilities, launching our series of e-learning sessions in cooperation with the GIFCT, and releasing the Tech Against Terrorism Podcast. A review of our work in 2019 will be published soon

• In 2020 Tech Against Terrorism is introducing its Reader’s Digest, a weekly review of insightful articles about terrorist and violent extremist use of the internet, counter-terrorism, and tech & society. The Reader’s Digest will be shared every Friday, and you can find the first edition at the end of this newsletter

What’s up next? 

• In February, Tech Against Terrorism will participate in a conference on “Foreign Terrorist Fighters – Addressing The Current Challenge”, in Vienna. This high-level event is jointly organised by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the Organization for Security an Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and Switzerland

• We are currently planning upcoming e-learning sessions in collaboration with the GIFCT, and the next Tech Against Terrorism Podcast episode. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to be the first to know about our future webinars, podcasts, and events

In case you might have missed it

• We concluded 2019 with a joint Tech Against Terrorism and GIFCT Workshop in London, held on December 10-11. This was a two-day workshop: the first day seeing discussion led by experts from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, Community Security Trust, BBC Monitoring, and Swansea University. The second day saw presentations of declassified threat assessments from Five Eyes law enforcement agencies

• In January, our Director, Adam Hadley, presented at UN CTED’s and the UN Counter Terrorism Committee’s open meeting on countering terrorist narratives in New York

• Continuing our engagement with the Mayor of London’s Civic Innovation Challenge, Tech Against Terrorism gave a presentation around best practice in tackling terrorist use of the internet for the companies taking part in the challenge at TechUK

• In January, our Director, Adam Hadley, presented at UN CTED’s and the UN Counter Terrorism Committee’s open meeting on countering terrorist narratives in New York

• We released the latest episode of the Tech Against Terrorism Podcast, on how mainstream media can amplify the spread of terrorist propaganda, featuring guests Kyle Taylor from HackedOff and Abdirahim Saeed from BBC Monitoring

• Earlier in January, our Research Manager Jacob Berntsson spoke with the Engenius podcast about Tech Against Terrorism’s work. You can listen to the episode here

Tech Against Terrorism Reader’s Digest

• “Prepping for a race war: document reveal inner working of neo-Nazi group”: While The Base has been making headlines since the arrest of several of its members by the FBI, the Guardian takes a deep-dive in the group’s inner workings (The Guardian, 25.01.2020)

• “Technology and the Swarm: a dialogic turn in online far-right activism”: An overview of how far-right online presence has evolved over the past decade, through psychological warfare techniques, live-broadcasts, and dissemination of “sanitised” version of their messages (Allchorn, CARR, 25.01.2020)

• “Sharing Space: Tech and Terrorism”: Elina Noor’s latest article looks back at the broad lines of terrorist use of the internet, and at how the tech sector has partnered to respond to this threat (Elina Noor, ORF, 29.01.2020)

• “‘Eco-fascist’ Arm of Neo-Nazi Terror Group, The Base, Linked to Swedish Arson”: Vice’s article on The Bases’s links to Sweden through its “Eco-Fascist” arm, is another reminder of the transnational links of neo-Nazi groups (Vice, 29.01.2020)

• “Lessons from the Islamic State’s ‘Milestone’ Texts and Speeches”: By analysing original texts produced by ISIS, this articles provides an insightful analysis of how the group has remained resilient across the past few decades despite significant adversity (Ingram, Whiteside and Winter, CTC Sentinel, January 2020)

• “Global digital tax talks: All you need to know”: An overview of all you need to know about this week’s talks about a Global Digital Tax in Paris (Politico, 31.01.2020)