LONDON: A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest US tech companies including Facebook and Microsoft is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters.
Until now, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) database has focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organizations such as Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Over the next few months, the group will add attacker manifestos — often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence — and other publications and links flagged by UN initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.
The firms, which include Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube, share “hashes,” unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other platforms use these to identify the same content on their own sites in order to review or remove it.
While the project reduces the amount of extremist content on mainstream platforms, groups can still post violent images and rhetoric on many other sites and parts of the Internet.
The tech group wants to combat a wider range of threats, said GIFCT’s Executive Director Nicholas Rasmussen in an interview with Reuters.
“Anyone looking at the terrorism or extremism landscape has to appreciate that there are other parts... that are demanding attention right now,” Rasmussen said, citing the threats of far-right or racially motivated violent extremism.
The tech platforms have long been criticized for failing to police violent extremist content, though they also face concerns over censorship. The issue of domestic extremism, including white supremacy and militia groups, took on renewed urgency https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-administration-unveils-plan-tackl... following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.
Fourteen companies can access the GIFCT database, including Reddit, Snapchat-owner Snap, Facebook-owned Instagram, Verizon Media, Microsoft’s LinkedIn and file-sharing service Dropbox.
GIFCT, which is now an independent organization, was created in 2017 under pressure from US and European governments after a series of deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels. Its database mostly contains digital fingerprints of videos and images related to groups on the UN Security Council’s consolidated sanctions list and a few specific live-streamed attacks, such as the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.
GIFCT has faced criticism and concerns from some human and digital rights groups over centralized or over-broad censorship.
“Over-achievement in this takes you in the direction of violating someone’s rights on the Internet to engage in free expression,” said Rasmussen.
Emma Llanso, director of Free Expression at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said in a statement: “This expansion of the GIFCT hash database only intensifies the need for GIFCT to improve the transparency and accountability of these content-blocking resources.”
“As the database expands, the risks of mistaken takedown only increase,” she added.
The group wants to continue to broaden its database to include hashes of audio files or certain symbols and grow its membership. It recently added home-rental giant Airbnb and email marketing company Mailchimp as members.
Facebook and tech giants to target attacker manifestos, far-right militias in database
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Facebook and tech giants to target attacker manifestos, far-right militias in database
- Facebook, Microsoft and other tech giants are stepping up efforts to crack down on white supremacist and far right content
- Over the next few months, the database will add attacker manifestos that are often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence
Book by jailed Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti set for November release
- Prison letters, photographs and other documents to feature in the book
DUBAI: A new book by jailed Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti is set for publication in November, with Penguin confirmed as the publisher, The Guardian reported.
Titled “Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine,” the book brings together a selection of Barghouti’s writings, including prison letters, interviews, public statements, conversations with public figures, and other documents and photographs.
It also features excerpts from his book “1,000 Days in Solitary Confinement,” which has so far only been published in Arabic.
Fadwa Barghouti, who wrote the introduction to the book, said she hoped it would allow the world to hear her husband “in his own voice, not through the noise surrounding him.”
She said in a statement: “This book finally makes that possible — and I hope it helps people understand who Marwan Barghouti truly is, and how he embodies the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity.”
Barghouti, who has spent over two decades in Israeli prison, is a member of the Fatah party. He has long advocated a two-state solution and is widely regarded as a powerful and unifying voice for Palestinians, with many supporters describing him as “Palestine’s Mandela.”
His detention has prompted repeated international advocacy efforts over the years.
In December 2025, an open letter calling for his release was signed by hundreds of celebrities, including Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Zadie Smith and Annie Ernaux; actors Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Josh O’Connor, Mark Ruffalo and Stephen Fry; and musicians Sting, Paul Simon, Brian Eno and Annie Lennox.
In November 2025, his family and several UK-based human rights advocates ran a campaign that included demonstrations and public art installations in Palestine and London.
Barghouti has been jailed by Israel since 2004, having been handed five life sentences plus 40 years for his role during the second Palestinian uprising. He has spent significant time in solitary confinement, has been denied visits by his family for three years, and has been denied access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
His name was on a list of prisoners to be exchanged for Israeli captives in October 2025, but Israel declined to release him.
