In cooperation with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland DCAF hosted a discussion on “Preventing Violent Extremism Online Through Business and Security” at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva. It was organised in the context of the Geneva Conference on Preventing Violent Extremism which was organized by the United Nations in partnership with the Government of Switzerland.
The side-event provided a platform to discuss measures to address the pressing challenges in relation to violent extremism online and to explore effective responses. Key challenges were considered, such as the lack of commonly accepted definitions for what constitutes violent extremism and terrorism respectively, and the absence of an international consensus around legitimate, human-rights compliant restrictions on freedom of expression.
The discussion was moderated by Ambassador Benno Laggner, Division for Security Policy at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, and was composed of the following experts:
Mr Steve Crown, Vice-President and Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft;
Mr Marc Porret, Legal Officer at the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UN-CTED);
Mr Jonathan Russell, Head of Policy at Quilliam Foundation;
Mr Peter Stern, Policy Manager at Facebook;
Representative of the EU Internet Referral Unit at Europol