The United Nations on Friday started a new initiative to protect victims of terrorist attacks from online harm and retraumatization, the main aim of which is to ensure a victim-centered approach to building a safer environment for internet users.
Friday, August 21st, marks that International Day of Remembrance and Honor of Victims of Terrorism. First founded in 2017 to Resolution 72/165August 21 is observed to honor and support victims and survivors of terrorist attacks and to promote and protect human rights and freedoms.
Last year, the UN Counter-Terrorism Office (UNOCT) started the Network of Victims of Terrorism Associations (VoTAN). One of the most important results of the first UN World Congress of Victims of Terrorism The 2022 event was intended to bring together victims, survivors, victims’ associations and other civil society organizations and provide a safe space to support each other and advocate for meaningful change. VoTAN currently connects 120 victims and victim associations in 40 countries.
This year, VoTAN published a briefing paper entitled “Building a Safer Internet for Victims of Terrorism.” Alexandre Zouev, UNOCT Acting Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, commented on the importance of the briefing paper and called for the introduction of better security measures to better protect vulnerable people:
Drawing directly on the lived experiences of victims and survivors, it offers recommendations to governments, technology companies and civil societies to create digital spaces that protect, rather than re-traumatize, those affected by terrorism.
Following the event, survivors of several devastating terrorist attacks around the world shared their experiences. When presenting the information paper, Dr. Maysoon Salama, director of the An-Nur Child Care Center, explains how platforms often trigger trauma long after crises have subsided. Graphic clips are often presented to viewers as trending news over the Internet Recommendation based algorithm. Aside from the non-consensual publication of images and videos, trauma is triggered in victims by creating deepfakes, manipulating events and supporting the accused, thereby denying and distorting the victims’ attacks.
Sometimes victims and their families were attacked via social media, noted Odette Chesnot, psychologist and founder of the Lebanese Association of Victims of Terrorism. Chesnot emphasized that such content can have a deep psychological impact and reactivate trauma. Sudden exposure to content that reminds victims of their trauma can hinder their progress toward full recovery.
Currently, the digital cleanup process falls squarely on the victims. The briefing papers provide guidelines and recommendations that go beyond basic content removal to a truly victim-centered framework through to platform design. VoTAN specifies some key features that need to be integrated into platform designs, such as: priority reporting channels and Victim Protection Status, where verified victims bypass bots and deal directly with human moderators trained in trauma and content moderation. This is particularly important, especially near and during the anniversary of seizures, to reduce seizures Amplification of extremist content and prevent the unjustified monetization of such content.
Another important recommended feature is the Golden Hour Protocolwith platforms needing pre-established crisis response rooms in the first moments after an attack to share verified information and ensure that algorithmic misinformation and deepfakes do not take hold.
