European Union Internet Forum

The EU Internet Forum (EUIF) is the EU’s main tool for voluntary cooperation with the internet industry to prevent and address the exploitation of the internet for terrorism, violent extremism and serious and organised crime.  

The Forum complements the EU’s digital legal framework, including the Terrorist Content Online Regulation and the Digital Services Act, to fight illegal and harmful content online.  

The Commission launched the Forum in December 2015 to tackle terrorist and harmful content online. The Forum covers a broad range of online crimes from child sexual abuse online, online drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings online to recruitment for organised crime and migrant smuggling online.

Mission

The EU Internet Forum creates a collaborative environment for national authorities from EU Member States, EFTA countries, the internet industry, and other partners to discuss and address the challenges posed by malicious and illegal content online.  

The Forum fosters exchange on constantly evolving online threats and supports analysis and evidence-building on existing and emerging challenges. The members of the Forum explore and work together on prevention, awareness raising and detection of the harm or crime against abuse and exploitation of online platforms by terrorists and violent extremists, as well as other malicious actors.  

The Forum is also supporting the preparation and implementation of EU policies. It is aligned with EU legislation and protects fundamental rights online. 

Actions and areas of work

EU Internet Forum activities address the most pressing risks in each crime area. Further information on the Forum’s work  and its activities can be found in the annual EU Internet Forum Activities overview below. 

The EU Internet Forum has developed several concrete products and initiatives to support industry members and law enforcement in their fight against illegal and harmful content online. All deliverables and activities of the EU Internet Forum are for voluntary use by its members and have no legal effect.  

• The Forum participated in the creation of Europol’s EU Internet Referral Unit which flags and refers terrorist content online to online platforms.
• The EU Online Crisis Response Framework, which was endorsed at the EU Internet Forum Ministerial meeting in March 2026, provides a voluntary and pro-active Framework for law enforcement and online service providers to prevent and respond to the risk of viral spread of illegal and harmful content linked to suspected terrorist or violent extremist incidents.
• Knowledge Packages to support identification and content moderation of illegal content online:
  • A Knowledge Package on  Violent Right-Wing Extremism’ groups, symbols, and manifestos.
  • A Knowledge Package on Countering Drug Sales Online
  • A Knowledge Package on Nihilistic Violent Extremism online
• Guidance for robust Terms of Services and Acceptable Use Policy to address terrorist financing activities
• The Community Engagement and Empowerment Programme to support civil society organisations and young professionals with digital tools, sustainable engagement strategies, and resilience building practices. It builds on the Civil Society Empowerment Programme which supported civil society organisations in the fight against terrorist and extremist propaganda online between 2015 and 2022.
• A study on the role and effects of algorithms in spreading terrorist, violent extremist and borderline content.  

Membership

The Forum is chaired by the European Commission and brings together a wide range of institutions, organisations, and networks as active members:

• EU countries and countries of the European Free Trade Agreement
• European institutions and EU Agencies, such as Europol, Eurojust, the Fundamental Rights Agency, the European External Action Service, and the Council’s Counter Terrorism Coordinator
• Internet industry, including Amazon, Automattic, Dailymotion, Discord, Dropbox, Meta, MistralAI, Google, Just Paste.it, Mega, Microsoft, Snap, Soundcloud, Telegram, Twitter, Twitch, Yubo, TikTok, Roblox and Zoom
• The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
• Tech Against Terrorism
• The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee
• The EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation (formerly the Radicalisation Awareness Network)
• Tech Coalition
• Institute for Strategic Dialogue

Events

The Forum organises technical meetings and info sessions throughout the year to address emerging and existing threats. Once a year, Senior Official Meetings take place and the Forum convenes every two years, at Ministerial level, chaired by the Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration.   

Useful documents

• EU Online Crisis Response Framework - Factsheet
• EU Internet Forum activities 2026
• EUIF Rules of procedure
• EU Internet Forum Brochure
• ProtectEU: Agenda to prevent and counter terrorism
• ProtectEU Internal Security Strategy
• EU Strategy on a more effective fight against child sexual abuse
• EU Internet Forum activities 2025
• EU Internet Forum activities 2024
• EU Internet Forum activities 2023
• EU Internet Forum Activities 2022
• EU Internet Forum brochure 2022
• EU Internet Forum Activities 2021