About the Definitional Framework Principles Project

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) is an NGO designed to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms. Founded by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube in 2017, the Forum was established to foster technical collaboration among member companies, advance relevant research, and share knowledge with smaller platforms. Since 2017, GIFCT’s membership has expanded beyond the founding companies to include over a dozen diverse platforms committed to cross-industry efforts to counter the spread of terrorist and violent extremist content online.

While the current data is vast, and is continuously being updated, the current iteration of the framework includes 82 definitions of terrorism and violent extremism. This is made up of 60 national definitions of terrorist, 4 intergovernmental bodies’ definitions of terrorism, and 18 countries’ definitions of violent extremism. If you would like to contribute by sharing data that could help us expand this research please contact GIFCT via email at: [email protected]

Our goal is to prevent terrorist and violent extremist exploitation of digital platforms. Recognizing there is no universally agreed-upon definition of terrorism, GIFCT works to facilitate broad dialogue and analysis of how terrorism and violent extremism manifests across the ideological spectrum. Through GIFCT Working Groups, supporting academic research through GNET, and within the workshops and events we host, we offer information and insights about how online activity, ideological trends, current events, and other factors are contributing to terrorism and violent extremism throughout the globe.

However, when developing and operating cross-platform tools, such as the GIFCT hash-sharing database, that help tech companies identify and when applicable, take action on content on their platforms, we’ve established refined parameters and a definitional framework for what constitutes terrorist and violent extremist content. Hashes of terrorist and violent extremist content that qualify to be put in the hash-sharing database currently must meet a taxonomy that recognizes the original producers of the content as well as the type of content and severity for harm. Learn more about that taxonomy here.

The mission of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism is to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms.GIFCT brings together the technology industry, government, civil society, and academia to foster collaboration and information-sharing to counter terrorist and violent extremist activity online. Central to our efforts is the protection and promotion of the fundamental human rights–to include freedom of expression–that terrorism seeks to undermine.

This tool is intended to provide tech companies, researchers, governments and practitioners with resources to enable them to better understand the ways that terrorism and violent extremism are defined, contextual resources for applying definitions, and awareness of risk mitigations around designation lists.