The Bergen Plan of Action
It is with the lives impacted on the 22/7 2011, and all the lives around the globe that have been impacted by terrorism in mind, we convened leading minds in our field at the University of Bergen this week to stake out the future and renew our commitment to our joint global efforts to combat terrorism in all its forms.
The high-level international dialogue forum convened high-level representatives from governments, including Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, of multinational bodies such as the European Union and United Nations, corporations including the founding companies of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism as well as representatives of a range of civil society organizations, academic institutions, and other stakeholder communities.
The objective of this work is not to replace, but to build upon, embed, and enact decades worth of collaborative work, of the establishment of global networks, collaborative institutions, and policies striving towards the goal of combatting global terrorism in a manner that is respectful of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Central to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the right to life, dignity, and liberty. These rights must be nurtured, defended, and built upon in our approaches to countering the spread of violent extremism and terrorism.
Online platforms, governments, transnational organizations, and civil society groups have a shared and interdependent responsibility to the users and citizens in governing our online public spaces. In governing these spaces the policies determined by private sector companies impacts more individuals than the policies of any single government in human history.
The objective of this effort is to address head-on the conceptual, ethical, and practical challenges posed by violent extremists and terrorists through the online spread of harmful materials, and to establish novel mechanisms to counteract the global impact of local terrorist attacks.
The aim is to find concrete and actionable solutions to these global challenges through collaborative international efforts across a number of sectors. These proposed solutions have been collected, presented, and honed throughout the conference and will form the foundation for our path going forward.
The following list of actions remains in draft form. Our immediate next step is to seek commitment and support from the contributors to the conference in order to deliver on these steps.
The suggested actions:
Invoke and apply a tougher and more comprehensive approach to incitement of violent extremism and terrorism rooted in principles of universality.
Establish a college of moderators to increase transparency and accountability surrounding the practice of moderation of violent extremist content with the objective of upholding human rights.
Establish a rapid response task force to support local authorities in limiting the disastrous impact of terrorist attacks and activities.
Establish a global hub for providing support for civil society organizations and their efforts in contributing to a safer internet through efforts targeting all stages of online radicalization.
Establish a tech innovation fund to produce technologies rooted in ‘best practice’ research and analysis, with the goal of supporting the four aims above.