The Malta IT Law Association (MITLA), together with leading local IT company, ICON, co-hosted the 3rd technical meeting for the CounteR Project on 28 and 29 September at the Valletta Design Cluster in Valletta. Consortium representatives from leading European entities specialising in the areas of intelligence, AI, privacy, law enforcement, counterterrorism and security attended the meetings.
Dr Antonio Ghio, President at MITLA, said that: “Together with ICON, MITLA proudly hosted the technical meetings for this project in Malta. MITLA is one of the consortium contributors in this project, ensuring a sound application of privacy law and ethics considerations. The ultimate objective of the CounteR project is to give law enforcement agencies, internet service providers, and social media platforms access to an early-warning tool for the detection of radical content online to stop the spread of radicalization and, ultimately, life-threatening terrorist attacks. This is one of the many European Commission Horizon 2020 funded projects in which MITLA has participated and contributed successfully. MITLA looks forward to offer more participation opportunities in such projects to all its members.”
The CounteR project (Privacy-First Situational Awareness Platform for Violent Terrorism and Crime Prediction, Counter Radicalisation and Citizen Protection) is a European 36-month project that supports the fight against radicalisation to prevent future terrorist attacks. The project involves nineteen organizations from eleven European member states, including Malta, who are unifying their efforts to counter radicalisation and violent extremism bringing together subject-matter experts in counterterrorism, radicalisation and privacy law, European law enforcement agencies with practical infield knowledge, as well as a group of technical SMEs and academic partners.
MITLA’s aim is to assist local technological empowerment through technology neutral legal frameworks by providing a specialised forum where legal developments within the ICT sector can be applied, studied, discussed, and championed. For more information on becoming a member and learning more about MITLA please visit: www.mitla.org.mt