Today, GIFCT publishes its 2025 Annual and Transparency Report, marking our seventh year producing a report in line with the vision and commitment to transparency that we share with our tech company members.
In 2025, we expanded our community of industry member companies, strengthened our connections with global multi-stakeholders, and improved our technical solutions, tools, and resources.
Membership
We welcomed a record seven new platforms—Anthropic, SoundCloud, Roblox, TikTok, GitHub, Snap Inc., and 4D Hype—strengthening our reach into key areas, including audio streaming, AI, gaming, and software development. This growth reflects our continued commitment to expanding and diversifying cross-platform collaboration as the online threat landscape grows more complex and globally dispersed.
We also launched the new, in-house Membership Advisory Program (MAP) to support current and prospective members. MAP ensures continued alignment with our membership criteria and provides tailored support designed to meet each company’s unique needs. MAP represents the evolution of our membership program from a partner-based model to one that gives GIFCT members greater direct access to technical solutions, expertise, resources, and support for their trust and safety efforts.
Strengthening Incident Response
We launched a revised and updated Incident Response Framework (IRF), the mechanism that helps member companies respond to online dimensions of offline terrorist and violent extremist violence. Developed in consultation with a wide variety of stakeholders across diverse regions and platforms, the updated IRF improves information sharing, communication, and tailored support, while increasing transparency and optimizing member engagement. Terrorist and violent extremist activity, both on and offline, prompted us to activate the IRF 14 times in 2025.
Research and Analysis
To ensure that members stay informed about significant threats posed by terrorists’ and violent extremists’ exploitation of digital platforms, we deliver analytical products including assessments, briefs, research reports and articles, and tailored analyses of specific dynamics of the online threat landscape, reflecting our diverse members’ needs.
In 2025, our knowledge products included a series of post-IRF activation intelligence briefs for members, research and reports published by GIFCT staff, and rapporteur’s notes following key GIFCT events. We were also delighted to receive a grant from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung to partner on a report on artificial intelligence and countering violent non-state actors, including terrorist groups.
To further support member trust and safety efforts, we developed and launched Compass, a GIFCT member portal that houses a full suite of curated resources, including knowledge products, analytical briefs, intel bulletins, guidebooks, and a Wiki of material relating to IRF-activation events and actors.
Our academic research arm, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology, kept members and stakeholders informed of the most timely and relevant findings at the intersections of technology and counterterrorism with its 120 Insights and events spanning topics and regions across the globe.
Knowledge Exchange and Collaboration
In 2025, our four signature events fostered discussion and an exchange of experiences on key issues, including child and youth exploitation, emerging technologies, and regional threats and trends. Our 2025 events included:
- a workshop focused on the intersections of tech, terrorism, and counterterrorism in West Africa, co-hosted with the International Institute for Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law;
- an event, in coordination with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), on the margins of the 80th UN General Assembly to strengthen collective efforts to address the evolving ways in which terrorists and violent extremists target children and youth;
- a roundtable co-hosted with Public Safety Canada and CTED to foster an exchange of insights, lessons learned, and good practices from diverse fields; and
- our Annual Member Forum, hosted in partnership with our Operating Board Chair, YouTube, for a day of sharing insights, collaboration, and forward planning.
Our 2025 Working Groups convened 178 participants from 40 countries across six continents to focus on three themes: Investigators Community of Practice; Artificial Intelligence: Threats and Opportunities; and Addressing Youth Radicalization and Mobilization. The resulting publications and outputs reflected members’ needs and priorities and strengthened efforts to build resilience among young people online and advance AI safety.
Human Rights
We delivered a series of human rights training modules for member companies and prospective members in partnership with BSR. We also published a Training Modules Booklet containing practical tools and lessons, equipping companies with shared language, concrete next steps, and targeted, proportionate, and transparent interventions.
We broadened our engagement with UN actors, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, and the human rights experts at CTED. And in 2025, we provided human rights guidance to member companies during MAP’s first year of ownership of the entire GIFCT membership process.
Governance
In late 2025, we were pleased to welcome Discord and Twitch as newly elected, “At-Large” members of our Operating Board for 2026. Their election reflects the confidence of the broader membership in the expertise, experience, and commitment both companies bring to the GIFCT community.
Jonathan Russell succeeded Ghayda Hassan as the new Chair of the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC), and GIFCT established a stronger stakeholder-management role to foster regular substantive exchanges.
Looking Ahead
So far in 2026, we have sought to build on this strong impact and ensure that the tools and resources we create are continually reviewed, adapted, and strengthened to deliver on our mission. This year, we have continued to refine our suite of member services, launched new products and services, and expanded our programming and partnerships for the coming months. Together, with our global stakeholder community, we can strengthen our capabilities and leverage our collective capacity to improve online safety for all.
2025 Annual & Transparency Report
