This week, GIFCT in partnership with Tech Against Terrorism and Public Safety Canada’s Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre) convened a regional workshop focused on the North American threat landscape and its nexus to online activity. This was GIFCT’s and Tech Against Terrorism’s 15th regional workshop since its founding in 2017. We are grateful to have Robert Burley, Executive Director of the Canada Centre, as a member of GIFCT’s Independent Advisory Committee and our partner in hosting the first GIFCT regional workshop in Canada.
Regional workshops have been an essential and effective part of GIFCT’s Learn efforts since the establishment of GIFCT in 2017. With the goal of meaningfully engaging experts and practitioners from different parts of the world, we aim to contribute to knowledge sharing about the specific threats of terrorism and violent extremism in the region and their connections to online activity and trends.
Taking place during Public Safety Canada’s week-long Canada Centre 2023 Conference on Countering Radicalization to Violence, this workshop brought together more than 60 experts and practitioners from tech, government and civil society in person, and more than 70 additional attendees joining virtually.
Over the course of the two-day event, online and in-person attendees engaged in panel discussions exploring current regional threat assessments and models for multistakeholder collaboration. Following these panel discussions, attendees further participated in a series of breakout sessions. The first was a tabletop exercise with in-person attendees on opportunities for positive intervention on digital platforms to prevent violent extremism online, followed by a session to explore how GIFCT and Tech Against Terrorism approach mentoring tech companies in their efforts to join GIFCT and fulfill our membership criteria.
We are deeply grateful to our hosts and partners for convening this important and informative workshop and their commitment to supporting our mission to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms. GIFCT Learn and our regional workshops recognize that this mission must start with voices and perspectives from a range of sectors and world regions, and a shared understanding of the problem we seek to counter.
About GIFCT Workshops #GIFCTLearn
Since its founding in 2017, GIFCT and its partner Tech Against Terrorism have hosted GIFCT Workshops around the world, providing a more formally structured opportunity for tech companies and committed stakeholders to share counterterrorism strategies and knowledge. GIFCT Workshops bring together tech platforms with policy makers, law enforcement, civil society, academic experts, and practitioners to share experiences, best practices, and models for cross-sector collaboration. To date, these workshops have engaged more than 140 tech companies, 40 NGOs, and 20 government bodies taking place across the globe including:
- Sydney, Australia
- Brussels, Belgium
- Paris, France
- Berlin, Germany
- Accra, Ghana
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Tel Aviv, Israel
- Amman, Jordan
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- California, USA (x2)
- New York, USA
- Delhi, India
- London, United Kingdom
- Ottawa, Canada
