51吃瓜

Introduction

Advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) and their availability have made them attractive for terrorists and violent extremist groups to exploit the Internet and social media to facilitate a wide range of activities, including incitement, radicalization, recruitment, training, planning, collection of information, communication, propaganda and financing. 

However, new and emerging technologies have great potential when it comes to accelerating human progress, enabling development, strengthening democratic institutions, and promoting and protecting human rights. 

They can also facilitate counter-terrorism efforts, notably the collection and preservation of information and evidence on terrorist activities and their finances, and enabling rapid dissemination of counter-terrorism narratives. To harness these technologies effectively, Member States need to adopt and use them in a manner that is compliant with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law. 

In 2021, the General Assembly concluded its seventh review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and requested the Office of Counter-Terrorism and Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities to support innovative measures and approaches to build the capacities of Member States to address the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies in preventing and countering terrorism. 

In 2024, the United Nations Member States signed the Pact for the Future, reaffirming their commitment to address global challenges. Among key issues, they agreed to “address the threat posed by the misuse of new and emerging technologies, including digital technologies and financial instruments, for terrorist purposes”. 
 

CT TECH+ Initiative

Funded by the European Union, CT TECH+ is a 2-year initiative jointly implemented by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and INTERPOL. This initiative will build upon the results achieved by CT TECH. CT TECH+ aims to contribute to global security by strengthening law enforcement capacities of selected Partner States to respond to the increasing use of new technologies for terrorist purposes, while upholding human rights and adopting a gender-responsive approach in the following way:

• National counter-terrorism policies or strategies of selected Partner States are strengthened to include comprehensive approaches to countering the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes. This includes national training on threat assessments and policy development, and awareness raising on Artificial Intelligence. 
• National technological capabilities of selected Partner States’ law enforcement agencies to counter terrorism are strengthened. This includes national consultations for new Partner States to review their law enforcement capabilities for new technologies and identify areas of improvement, but also trainings on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), artificial intelligence as well as darknet and virtual assets investigations. 
• Selected Partner States’ international co-operation and public-private partnerships are improved to use new and emerging technologies to counter terrorism. This includes organizing and running a CT TECH+ operation towards the end of the initiative and table-top exercises on public-private partnerships.