Seeing like Big Tech

Social media corporations as actors of counter-terrorism

“…Effectively, these private actors are playing a key role in the development and implementation of the nascent online CT/CVE regime. Somewhat similar to terrorism financing which is more codified, this is indicative of a new logic of governance in the policy areas of online CT/CVE, where platform firms have become a "link" in the "chain of security" (de Goede, 2018) by virtue of their self-regulation, and in the logic of "global security assemblages" (Abrahamsen and Williams, 2010;Tréguer, 2019). Whether these findings are applicable to other tech firms, especially non-Western ones and in non-Western contexts, is an interesting question for future research, as indicated by TikTok's failed attempt (so far) to join the GIFCT (Birnbaum, 2019).…”

“…France, the United Kingdom, and Germany actively sanctioned algorithmic moderation by encouraging it through the EU Internet Forum, to the point that the European Commission's initial proposal for the TERREG sought to impose the use of "proactive measures" similar to those deployed by Google, Facebook, and Twitter, on all platforms vulnerable to terrorist exploitation. This illustrates Félix Tréguer's observation that security assemblages may be used by states to bypass their own legal constraints and commitments, in the name of the efficiency of national security (Tréguer, 2019). Indeed, the "proactive measures" provision was scrapped by the EU Parliament for violating the e-Commerce Directive's prohibition of "general obligation[s] (.…”

“…Such a statement drawing a direct link between the services operated by the companies he was visiting, and the traumatic events of the previous months signaled the beginning of a securitization process 10 linking terrorism and social media in the French public sphere. In effect, ensuing private negotiations resulted in the establishment of a permanent multistakeholder arrangement called "Point de contact" gathering Apple, Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook, and law enforcement around the issue of online terrorism (Tréguer, 2019).…”

“…In the United Kingdom, a similar process of securitization unfolded after the country was hit by its own wave of ISIS attacks in 2016-2017, as visible in the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report on the 'tipping point ' of radicalization (2016). The launch of a French-British action plan against terrorist use of the Internet in June 2017 shows that British politicians found an ally in the newly elected Macron administration, which made the struggle for a "safer" Internet a national priority and guiding principle of French foreign policy (Tréguer, 2019). The two administrations took another trip to the Silicon Valley in January 2018 along with Germany, thereby forcefully demonstrating alignment between the three largest European powers (and markets).…”

“…Previously, the corporations had relied on outside consultants for this work, so their hiring in-house CT professionals reveals that another threshold has been crossed in their ownership of terrorism-related matters. Often, these new employees have academic or public service backgrounds, which facilitate the establishment of fruitful working relationships with the public sector, especially in the United States (Arpagian in Musiani et al, 2016;Tréguer, 2019). Facebook is the company which has pushed this the farthest: in total, it reportedly counts more than 200 employees who work specifically on terrorism from different professional standpoints (legal experts, engineers, IT specialists, etc.).…”