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]

History

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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

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The Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) is described as the "academic research arm of GICFT".[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

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GIFCT has been flagged by civil society activists and scholars 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

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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

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References

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  8. ^ GNET Official website
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