The four tech giants have chaired the consortium since they announced it in 2016, when Western governments blasted them for allowing Islamic State to post gruesome videos of journalists and humanitarians being beheaded. With eight employees, GIFCT – which the board organized as a US non-profit in 2019 after the Christchurch massacre – is one of the groups that technology competitors must work with to tackle discreet online harms, including child abuse and illegal practices. trading in intimate images.
The efforts have helped bring down unwanted content, and by highlighting the work, companies can avoid burdensome regulations. But the politics involved in managing the consortia generally remain secret.
Only eight of GIFCT's 25 member companies responded to WIRED's requests for comment. Respondents, including Meta, Microsoft and YouTube, all say they are proud to be part of what they consider a valuable group. The consortium's executive director, Naureen Chowdhury Fink, did not dispute WIRED's reporting. She says TikTok continues to work to gain membership.
GIFCT has trusted on voluntary contributions from its members to finance the approximately $4 million it spends annually on salaries, research and travel. According to available public documents, Microsoft, Google and Meta each donated at least $4 million from 2020 through 2022, and Twitter donated $600,000. Some other companies contributed tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but most paid nothing.
Last year, at least two board members were furious with companies they viewed as freeloaders, and fear spread among the nonprofit's staff about whether their jobs would be in jeopardy. It didn't help that when Musk changed Twitter to
To diversify funding, the board has decided to recruit foundations and even explore government grants for non-core projects. “We really need to carefully consider whether it makes sense,” says Chowdhury Fink. “But sometimes it is useful to work with multiple stakeholders.”
Rights activists the group personally consulted questioned whether this would count as subsidies for tech giants, which could siphon resources from potentially more powerful counter-extremism projects. But records show that staff was considering applying for a grant of more than tens of thousands of dollars from the pro-Israel philanthropy Newton and Rochelle Becker Charitable Trust. Chowdhury Fink says GIFCT ultimately did not apply.
This year, Meta, YouTube, Microsoft and
Paying members can vote for two board seats, she said. To be eligible for board membership, the condition is that a larger donation is made. X had indicated that it would not pay and would therefore forfeit its seat, two sources said – a development that finally took place this month. It was planned that it would gain decisive power in 2025 under the management of four companies. (Under the bylaws, Meta, YouTube, and Microsoft could have kicked Twitter out of the board once Musk took over the company. But they chose not to exercise the power.)
