On 10 June 2025, Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), and the Executive Director of Tech Against Terrorism, Mr. Adam Hadley, CBE, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The MoU provides for close cooperation between CTED and Tech Against Terrorism in technical areas set forth in United Nations Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism, especially those which address the misuse of information and communications technologies (ICT) and other emerging technologies for terrorist purposes, such as recruitment and incitement to commit terrorist acts, as well as the financing planning and preparation of their activities.
The Security Council has specifically recognized the efforts of Tech Against Terrorism in resolutions 2395 (2017), 2396 (2017), 2617 (2021), and 2713 (2023). In the Delhi Declaration on Countering the Use of New and Emerging Technology for Terrorist Purposes, adopted on 29 October 2022, the Counter-Terrorism Committee also recognized the efforts of the Tech Against Terrorism initiative to foster collaboration with representatives of the technology industry, including smaller technology companies, civil society, academia, and Government, to disrupt terrorists’ ability to use the Internet for terrorist purposes, while also respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Conscious of the evolving threats of terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism through the Internet, social media, and related online spaces and digital tools, the MoU builds upon the close strategic cooperation established in the past years to establish a framework for partnership between CTED and Tech Against Terrorism with respect to preventing and countering terrorism online and offline. Tech Against Terrorism has also recently joined the CTED-led Global Research Network (GRN), further strengthening collaboration and interoperability between the entities in priority areas of research and technical expertise.
During their meeting, the principals underlined the value of multi-stakeholder cooperation between States, the private sector, and civil society to develop and implement more effective means to prevent and counter harmful use of ICT and committed to strengthening the collaboration between CTED and Tech Against Terrorism in their common efforts to prevent and counter terrorist misuse of ICTs.