On 14-15 February, the IIJ was delighted to return to London for the latest expert roundtable in its initiative on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE): a Roundtable on Addressing Emerging Technologies in the Realm of REMVE / Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT), co-sponsored by the United States and United Kingdom and graciously hosted by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office at historic Lancaster House. The roundtable gathered 40 criminal justice practitioners and policymakers, leading technology sector representatives, and academic and think tank experts for intensive discussions of how REMVE actors are exploiting emerging technologies to recruit, raise funds, and commit and conceal criminal offenses — and what governments can do to address such threats.
With this roundtable, the IIJ successfully established one of the very first fora in which government practitioners and policymakers had the opportunity to exchange their experiences and insights with non-governmental experts on these cutting-edge technologies in a closed environment of trust. The discussion’s scope was global, with participants collectively representing 11 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and a range of institutions including Europol, INTERPOL, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, Tech Against Terrorism, Meta, Moonshot, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Royal United Services Institute, American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, and Richmond American University in London.
Over the meeting’s two days, the expert group discussed in detail, and with recent real-life case examples, how REMVE actors seek to exploit for their criminal purposes technologies including generative artificial intelligence and chatbots, immersive online gaming platforms, and 3-D printed weapons. The participants identified a number of concrete steps governments and tech companies can take both to address such threats and to proactively use those technologies to prevent, detect, disrupt, investigate, and prosecute REMVE actors’ technology-enabled crimes. This dialogue built on the guidance of the good practices in the IIJ Criminal Justice Practitioner’s Guide for Addressing REMVE which the IIJ published in 2021, available in Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish HERE (add hyperlink).
The IIJ is proud to help strengthen and institutionalize international dialogue around REMVE/ERWT and will use the IIJ REMVE Guide as a basis for continued exchange among practitioners, policymakers, and experts through further Criminal Justice Practitioner’s Roundtables later in 2024.