UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

Check against delivery.

I would like to thank the Chair for giving me the floor as well as the panelists for their valuable input.

As we heard today, in recent years, both the number of social media platforms and their users have doubled, underscoring their importance as a platform for expressing views and spreading awareness and knowledge among different peoples.

However, terrorist groups, such as Da’esh, continue to exploit technology and social media as a platform to disseminate false propaganda, recruit fighters, and finance and plan their operations. The international community must remain vigilant of this phenomenon and intensify its efforts to address it effectively.

Our meeting today provides an important opportunity to discuss the latest trends on preventing the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes, as well as a venue to exchange experiences and best practices on this topic. To this end, the UAE would like to focus on the following three points:

First, strengthening cooperation and coordination between governments and technology companies, is critical to understand the everchanging methods employed by terrorist groups and to identify and quickly respond to their harmful content. In this regard, we believe it is important to strengthen coordination, in particular, between stakeholders seeking to confront terrorist narratives and social media companies. We also encourage increased collaboration between major and emerging social media companies.

Second, we must intensify efforts to expose the narratives of extremist groups while also promoting awareness among young people and spreading the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence in cyberspace. The UAE is home to the Sawab Center, which aims to combat extremist and terrorist rhetoric and amplify moderate voices across ten different social media platforms.

Third, by cooperating with various local actors, such as religious leaders, media, think tanks, research institutions, and civil society, we can help promote the values of peace, co-existence, and tolerance in societies.

In conclusion, the UAE affirms its commitment to continue working and collaborating with regional and international partners to build society’s resilience against terrorist discourse and prevent its spread.