TRANSPARENCY REPORT

December 2020 – November 2021

We are delighted to announce the publication of our first Transparency Report for the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP). This report covers the first full year of the TCAP Alerts from 1 December 2020 to 30 November 2021.

Transparency is one of the core principles that the TCAP is founded on. This is the first ever Transparency Report, an initiative we aim to continue throughout the development of the TCAP. To read more about transparency reporting, you can read Tech Against Terrorism's Guidelines on Transparency Reporting here. Adam Hadley, Founder and Director of Tech Against Terrorism, said:

"This report once again confirms that terrorist groups predominantly exploit a wide range of smaller platforms, but it also shows that tech platforms will do the right thing and remove terrorist material if provided with appropriate support. This further proves that our focus has to be on providing support mechanisms to platforms to ensure positive impact.”

“The report findings showcase the urgent need for governments to improve designation of far-right terrorist groups. Unfortunately a tool like TCAP – and many tech platforms – will not be able to scale its removal of far-right terrorist content unless governments lead the way in providing legal clarity around far-right terrorism, such as via designation mechanisms."

Anne Craanen, Senior Research Analyst and TCAP Policy Lead, said:

"Transparency is a key principle at Tech Against Terrorism, and by publishing this report we hope to raise the bar in transparency in the online counterterrorism sector. Not only does this report provide valuable insights into terrorist online propaganda dissemination techniques, it also promotes trust and accountability. We encourage all tech companies, industry initiatives, and governments to be transparent about their online counterterrorism efforts"

Summary of key findings

The TCAP Transparency Report covers a wide range of data which the TCAP team have collected and analysed since the launch of the TCAP. Some of the key findings are outlined below.

• Our open-source intelligence experts submitted 18,958 URLs containing terrorist content, and the TCAP sent 11,074 alerts to 65 tech companies, 94% of which is now offline. In total, 114 tech companies are registered and able to receive alerts as soon as we detect terrorist content on their platforms.

• 18,787 URLs containing Islamist terrorist content have been submitted to the TCAP, compared to 170 URLs containing far-right terrorist content. 10,959 alerts containing Islamist terrorist content were sent, whilst 115 alerts containing far-right terrorist content have been sent to tech companies.

• Tech platforms generally remove more Islamist terrorist content than far-right terrorist content as a result of our alerts. The average removal rate by tech companies following alerts of Islamist terrorist content is 94%, whereas the average removal rate of far-right terrorist content is 50%.

• Platforms providing link shortening, photo sharing, video hosting, and audio streaming services, as well as web hosting platforms, are most responsive and have removed 100% of verified terrorist content notified via the TCAP. Archiving platforms are the least responsive to our alerts, with 59% of alerted content being removed.

To read the full report, click here