TheGlobal Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) is an Internet industry initiative to shareproprietary information and technology for automatedcontent moderation.[1][2]
Founded in 2017 by a consortium of companies spearheaded byFacebook (now known asMeta),Google/YouTube,Microsoft andTwitter (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 includeMicrosoft,Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp),YouTube,Twitter,Airbnb,Discord,Dropbox,LinkedIn,Amazon,Mailchimp,Pinterest,JustPaste.it,Tumblr,WordPress.com andZoom.[5]
GIFCT maintains a database ofperceptual 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]
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 theInternational Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence atKing's College London.[9]
GIFCT has been flagged by civil society activists and scholars as a "content cartel" similar toYouTube'sContent 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 ofwar crimes.[10]
In 2022,Facebook, Inc., a subsidiary of Meta Platforms, was subject to a subpoena about GIFCT usage asOnlyFans was alleged to have used GIFCT to harm competitors by getting their content and accounts censored onInstagram.[11] Facebook and OnlyFans have described these allegations as being "without merit".[12]
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