Six of the nine independent experts on the advisory board of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism resigned on Monday, according to interviews with three of the people and a letter reviewed by WIRED. The consortium is run by several of the largest US technology companies. The departing members include university researchers and representatives of civil society organizations.
The dispute traces to a July email from Meta vice president Nell McCarthy, who oversees content policy. McCarthy wrote that the consortium still valued the experts' input on violent trends but no longer wanted their review of how well Big Tech curtails violence. She said Meta and other leaders intended to "refresh" the six-year-old committee, and that under the plan new members would be chosen by the tech companies rather than elected by current members.
The proposal would also prevent the committee from assessing the consortium's performance or issuing joint recommendations. The departing experts said in their resignation letter that their objections had been disregarded and that they had lost confidence in the GIFCT's ability to carry out its founding mission of keeping terrorists off online services. They wrote that a body unable to scrutinize, take positions, or evaluate is not advisory at all, calling such a body decoration and accountability theater.
Meta referred questions about the resignations to the GIFCT. A GIFCT spokesperson sent WIRED an unsigned statement on behalf of the consortium's leadership and its Meta-chaired operating board saying the proposed changes followed several rounds of feedback and are not final. The statement said the changes came from discussions about engaging civil society and governments more effectively, calling multi-stakeholderism a core principle.
The GIFCT has about 35 members, with Microsoft and YouTube among its long-time board members. Its small staff alerts members to violent content, helps them exchange threat intelligence, and commissions research on countering extremism. A 2024 WIRED investigation found problems including Meta's delay of TikTok's membership bid, poor relations between the companies at the helm and the unpaid advisory body, and failures in the tip-sharing database used to coordinate takedowns.
The experts agreed with McCarthy that the consortium needed changes, but believe the proposal, which could be finalized soon, is a step backward. One departing expert said there will be no critical voices questioning what the GIFCT does or does not do, and that the companies will regret the move over the longer term. Another called it a shame that the companies are rolling back independence that was already weak instead of building better evaluation and transparency. Both spoke anonymously, fearing retaliation from the Trump administration, which has denied visas to people it believes unfairly censor online content, and from Republicans in Congress investigating supposed censorship groups.
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