Terrorist and other illegal content online is an increasing issue both from a security and public policy perspective. In today’s complex, interconnected world, countering the spread of terrorist content online requires a multifaceted approach. One which recognizes the interdependence of global and digital phenomena and requires a combination of legislative, non-legislative and voluntary measures based on collaboration between authorities and Hosting Service Providers (HSPs).

The Regulation (EU) 2021/784, addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online (“TCO Regulation”), entered into force in this context on the 7th of June 2021 and is applicable as of the 7th of June 2022. It sets out several specific measures that HSPs exposed to terrorist content must implement to address the misuse of their services. However, these new measures, such as the removal of flagged terrorist content in one hour, might represent an important burden for HSPs, and especially for micro and small ones. This is where the FRISCO Project steps in : micro and small HSPs are the target group of our project and we are here to help.

In this context, the objective of the FRISCO Project (standing for “Fighting Terrorist Content Online”) is to support micro and small HSPs in their compliance and content moderation efforts. We help these small players to comply with the TCO Regulation, through :

• (1) Informing HSPs and increasing their awareness of the TCO Regulation and their new obligations
• (2) Developing and validating tools, frameworks and mechanisms to support HSPs in the implementation of the TCO Regulation
• (3) Sharing experiences, best practices and tools to support the implementation of the TCO Regulation

Our activities are based on an initial mapping report, drafted to gather the needs of HSPs and understand their level of awareness of the TCO Regulation. Based on this initial assessment, we have developed a number of free and useful resources:

• WP2 – Tools, frameworks and mechanisms
• WP3 – A training framework
• WP4 – Best practices materials
• WP5 – Dissemination of our results

As a result of the project, targeted HSPs will have a better understanding of what is terrorist content online and will be better prepared to deal with it and to comply to the TCO Regulation. Ultimately, this will lead to safer navigation online by reducing the risk to encounter terrorist content online.