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
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
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
“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)
“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)