Dr Gavin Sullivan appointed to international advisory body for the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)
Tue 23 April 2024
Dr Gavin Sullivan, Reader in International Human Rights law at Edinburgh Law School and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, was recently appointed to the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) for a three-year term. Dr. Sullivan is one of only three academic experts worldwide appointed to this important advisory body. Other IAC members include the US, UK and Canadian governments, the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), and the European Commission.
The GIFCT is the world’s leading global governance body for countering terrorist and violent extremist content (TVEC) online. It was originally founded in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter (now X), and YouTube but reorganised in 2020 as an independent not-for-profit organisation with multistakeholder input from governments, international organisations, civil society organisations, and academics. It administers the world’s largest cross-platform database for removing online TVEC material. The IAC plays a crucial role in the governance of GIFCT, including by promoting transparency in GIFCT’s work and fostering greater alignment with international human rights principles.
On receiving news of this appointment, Dr Sullivan said: “I am honoured to have been invited to join this important global advisory body. GIFCT is the leading global governance organisation for online counterterrorism and plays a key role in working with the world’s major platforms to create global standards and norms in this area. The decisions GIFCT takes produce important effects in the world – including through their cross-platform moderation of online content. I am very much looking forward to drawing from my research in this area and working with other IAC members from around the world to help shape these global processes."
Dr Sullivan has been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship for his project, 'Infra-Legalities: Global Security Infrastructures, AI and International Law' which examines how AI and automated decision-making processes are reshaping the governance of terrorism and violent extremism online. He has been an active member of various GIFCT Working Groups - including on Transparency and Legal Frameworks - since 2020 and he is the co-editor (with Fleur Johns and Dimitri Van Den Meerssche) of the forthcoming volume, 'Global Governance by Data: Infrastructures of Algorithmic Rule' (Cambridge University Press).