Welcome to Volume 11, Issue 7 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter.
VOX-Pol AT TASM
Organised by Swansea University’s Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, the Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) conference took place on 18 and 19 June. If you missed it, you can see videos of the keynote and selected presentations.
The opening keynote speech from Brian Fishman can be watched at this link. Brian Fishman is a co-founder of Cinder, a leading Trust & Safety operations platform. Prior to Cinder, Fishman led Facebook’s work countering terrorist organizations and hate groups. Professor Stuart Macdonald of Swansea University, VOX-Pol Coordinator, Professor Stuart Macdonald of Swansea University, led the team that organised the conference. He said:
“We were delighted to welcome more than 250 delegates to the conference, from 25 countries worldwide, including many VOX-Pol colleagues. It was a really rewarding two days, covering a wide variety of topics, with great discussions and presentations from researchers (including many early career and postgraduate researchers) as well as stakeholders.”
VOX-Pol NEXT GEN NETWORK CONFERENCE
The inaugural VOX-Pol Next Generation Network Conference kicked off TASM week on 17 June 2024. Nine different Early Career Researchers presented their research across a diverse range of topics, followed by enthusiastic questioning from some 30 participants. These cutting-edge presentations will be shared on YouTube as part of the VOX-Pol lecture series.
The group also discussed potential future events for the network and ways to grow the community, for example, a European retreat, standalone conference, and workshops. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks, and register your interest on the website under the Next Gen Network tab or on the Discord to stay updated.
VOX-Pol ONLINE WORKSHOPS
VOX-Pol is pleased to share the full recording of the latest online workshop on “Borderline Online Content” which took place in June 2024. The workshop was hosted by Brigitte Naderer, Senior Researcher at the Medical University of Vienna, Heidi Schulze, Research Associate at LMU Munich, and Diana Rieger, Professor at LMU Munich.
A VOX-Pol Blog post was published last week which summarises the workshop presentations, and gives seven key actions for addressing borderline content online.
NEW FROM THE VOX-Pol BLOG
Articles from the last month on the VOX-Pol Blog:
- Borderline Content Online, 3 July 2024, by Heidi Schulze, Brigitte Naderer, and Diana Rieger.
- The proscription of Terrorgram as a terrorist organisation in the UK: Insights from the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, 26 June 2024, by Joshua Farrell-Molloy.
- Examining Online Behaviours: Violent and Non-Violent Right-Wing Extremists During Peak Posting Days, 19 June 2024, by Ryan Scrivens
- Unmasking the Dark Side of Humour: Far-Right Strategic Mainstreaming in Memes, 12 June 2024, by Ursula Schmid, Heidi Schulze and Antonia Drexel.
IN THE MEDIA
News and analysis by and featuring VOX-Pol Members.
- Universities must help counter the growing threat of AI extremism, University World News, 20 June 2024.
- The sad, stupid rise of the sigma male: how toxic masculinity took over social media, The Guardian, 12 June 2024.
