Legislating Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content

Alongside their efforts to define terrorism and violent extremism and create associated policy frameworks, governments worldwide also seek to create legislative and regulatory frameworks that put legal obligations on tech companies to address terrorist and violent extremist content or actors that might exist on their platforms. These obligations can include: proactive removals, time-bound removals, the preservation of content for evidence, and transparency reporting. While some legal obligations might be easily achievable, not all tech platforms have the appropriate resource capacity to meet the legislative demands that they might face. 

Importantly, each government that attempts to legislate terrorist and violent extremist content does so with its specific local context and national security goals in mind, as well as international legal obligations and agreements, resulting in an international policy framework that sometimes places contradictory and competing obligations on tech companies that often operate across geographic borders. Again, just as there is no universal and comprehensive definition of terrorism, there is as yet no global consensus on how to legislate terrorist and violent extremist content. 

Drawing on work from previous Legal Frameworks Working Groups, GIFCT’s Global Legislative Map was created to support tech companies, policymakers, and practitioners with understanding the ways in which governments are legislating terrorist and violent extremist content. 

The Global Legislative Map tracks emerging, proposed, and enacted legislation that places obligations on technology companies and impacts how these organizations enforce their policies and terms of service, specifically regarding terrorist and violent extremist content. The Map currently covers proposals and legislation in 22 countries. In some instances, countries that have multiple pieces of legislation are included within the Map. The Legislative Map does not include the full range of legislation and regulations countries are enacting to address the diverse spectrum of online harms, as it specifically focuses on the global framework that informs some of the policies and practices platforms use to address TVEC.