IGF 2022 Town Hall #5 Global regulation to counter terrorist use of the internet

Global efforts to regulate the internet have increased dramatically over the past four years as government concerns about terrorist content or various other “online harms”' continue to grow. Terrorist and violent extremist content in particular is often at the forefront of these regulatory efforts. We at Tech Against Terrorism specialize in helping tech companies, ranging from social media platforms to smaller file-sharing sites, messaging apps, and financial technology platforms, improve their response to terrorist content while safeguarding human rights. It can be very challenging, and for smaller tech platforms in particular, to keep up with the fast-changing regulatory landscape. With an increasing number of countries seeking to regulate terrorist content and online speech in general, the global online regulatory framework is fragmenting into multiple – and sometimes conflicting – legal requirements for tech platforms. The initiatives have ranged from imposing short removal deadlines to incentivizing for more automated content moderation practices. These efforts have the potential to rewrite some of the ground rules of the internet and online speech without, in our assessment, effectively tackling terrorist content online. Furthermore, many of the examined approaches pose a risk of negatively impacting freedom of expression, the rule of law, and sectoral competition and innovation. In light of this fast-changing and complex regulatory landscape, Tech Against Terrorism decided to provide smaller tech companies with an overview of global online regulation. We therefore set out to provide a guide on online regulation emerging worldwide for the tech platforms we work with. Following our first edition of the Online Regulation Series in October 2020 and the launch of a Handbook in July 2021, we conducted the second edition of our Online Regulation Series in November – December 2021. This year, Tech Against Terrorism will add to this series to reflect the online global regulatory landscape in 2022. For this IGF event, Tech Against Terrorism will speak to our updated 2022 findings and collective analysis of the online regulatory landscape. We will provide a current risk assessment based on emerging global regulation, especially regarding human rights and freedom of expression, regulatory fragmentation, and the impact on smaller platforms. Finally, we will present our recommendations and the Tech Against Terrorism regulatory guidelines, which are meant to inform more thoughtful global online regulation of terrorist content online by policymakers. This regulatory work is a key part of our policy and practical support for the tech sector, which we will provide a broad overview of during the session, such as detailing the support that we provide through our key three workstreams: analysis of the threat and outreach, knowledge sharing and best practice, as well as tech development and operational support.

To facilitate interaction between onsite and online speakers and attendees, we will include a Q&A session at the end of the presentation, to enable discussion and questions from the attendees. We will use a powerpoint presentation to ensure the best possible experience for online and onsite participants.