Violence Prevention Network supports the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)

Over the past years, tech companies have become increasingly aware of the role they can play in fostering a safe online community and have developed regulations and initiatives to limit hate speech and online recruitment from terrorist groups in order to protect users and prevent violent extremism. Many of these strategies rely on the detection and removal of problematic content as well as deplatforming measures. These are effective approaches to protecting those at risk of radicalization and curtailing the spread of hate and ideological justifications of violence. However, both deplatforming as well as the removal of content are necessary but insufficient measures. Deleting problematic content or profiles will not convince content creators to change their minds, nor will it reduce the violent activities of these extremists. Moreover, most legal and/or platform guidelines do not restrict content which, while not strictly violent or terrorist in nature, may well incite radicalization of users either in its messages or through its links to other accounts, groups, and individuals. Thus, more PVE/CVE practitioners, who reach out to, and work directly with, those at-risk or already radicalized, are urgently needed for all types of online spaces. It is this unique perspective on and experience in both offline and online PVE/CVE praxis that Judy Korn will bring uniquely to the Independent Advisory Committee of the GIFCT.

Only the continuous exchange of knowledge and expertise between diverse professional groups involved in the fight against extremism will enable us to continuously adapt our approaches to the increasingly complex ever-changing challenges posed by ever-evolving extremist scenes.

As the founder and CEO of Europe’s largest non-governmental practitioner organization active in the field of deradicalization, Judy Korn has excellent access to the latest insights from the field of PVE/CVE, deradicalization, exit- and intervention strategies. Furthermore, since extremism and its most threatening manifestation – international terrorism – are international phenomena and as such involve transnational actors, every effort to counter them that stop at national borders will be doomed to fail. Thus, Violence Prevention Network supports international networks of collective action and support, and is frequently called upon to advise ministries and institutions on the development and implementation of deradicalization and prevention approaches. As an example, Judy Korn followed the invitation of DG Home (European Commission) to the inception meeting of the Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN) in 2011. Having served as member of the Steering Committee and as Working Group Chair since then, she shifted to become the Quality Manager of RAN Practitioners in January 2020.

Thus, due to Judy Korn’s experience in the field of PVE/CVE gathered over the past 30 years, she will support the GIFCT as an Independent Advisory Committee member with excellent, highly-specific, and highly-relevant expertise, deep knowledge, an extensive network, and the awareness of trends and identification of the acute needs from the perspectives of P/CVE practitioners throughout Europe. Violence Prevention Network sees the necessity for close collaboration between experts from different professions and backgrounds. Again and again, the NGO has experienced how these highly interdisciplinary teams prove most effective in developing new and effective counter-extremism approaches with the potential to address the scope and scale of the threat at hand.

Judy Korn, born in 1971, founder and executive director of Violence Prevention Network, has worked to counter extremism since she was 14 years old. The success of the approaches developed by her organization stem from Judy Korn’s relentless commitment to a collaborative approach between intelligence/security services, law enforcement, policy makers, and non-profit P/CVE practitioners.