By Ninian Frenguelli It is increasingly difficult to access data from social media platforms. Researcher access to Meta platforms was removed in 2024 when CrowdTangle was shut down, but it was already being slowly restricted prior to this with Meta closing accounts of researchers in 2021. Researchers are in a difficult position: with no official ...

By Mark Peden Troubling trends in violent extremism are emerging that challenge traditional frameworks of classification and ideology. Amid accelerating digital revolution, ongoing permacrisis, and increasingly apocalyptic media narratives, nihilistic and apocalyptic violent extremism (N/AVE) is on the rise, frequently driven by mixed, unclear, and unstable (MUU) belief systems that defy conventional categorisation. Beyond ideological ...

By Sören Henrich This blog is based on a recent publication which you can find here. Last October, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum expressed concern about a growing trend among radicalised individuals that was challenging preventive and policing bodies. A considerable number of reviewed cases presented mixed ideologies or lacked a clear ideological conviction. Furthermore, services ...

By Tim Legrand, Nathan Manning, and Melissa-Ellen Dowling Young people worldwide are increasingly exposed to violent ideas and ideologies in web-based communities. According to national security agencies, children as young as 12 are adopting extremist beliefs, folding issues of child safeguarding into national security concerns. While we know that exposure to extremist ideologies in online ...

By Andrew Glazzard The acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence, released on Netflix in March 2025, has generated exceptional volumes of commentary about what it says about being a youth in the technologically enriched Britain of the 2020s. Kate Cantrell and Susan Hopkins, in an article written for The Conversation and republished on the VOX-Pol blog, summarise ...

By Stuart Macdonald In a recent article, co-authored with Jonathan Hall KC, I made the argument that it is possible to disseminate terrorist propaganda to the public in (what may be regarded by some as) private online spaces. Here, I outline this argument and consider its relevance to the EU’s Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation. ...

By Bo Min Keum and Richard Frank Background Research suggests that participating in online forums give Incels a sense of belonging and validation for their shared grievances and struggles. Therefore, posing the question; why would they stop posting, and what do they say before they do? Given the emerging research on Incel posting trajectories, and ...

By Shaswati Das On 10 May, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire, after finding themselves at the precipice of yet another all-out war. Had the war unfolded, it would have been the fifth war between both nuclear-armed nations, in the last eight decades. Underpinning India’s retaliatory action is the act of one group – ...

By Anna Kruglova and Bruce White The digital landscape demands evolving strategies against violent extremism and terrorism online. Traditional counter-measures by professional institutions often struggle to keep pace with the sophisticated propaganda and disinformation disseminated by extremist groups and hostile actors. Their ability to adapt quickly necessitates democratizing counter-efforts, empowering communities to safeguard online spaces. ...

By Katy Vaughan Ofcom, as the UK’s independent regulator of ‘Online Safety’ is taking a phased approach to the implementation of the Online Safety Act, which passed into law in October 2023. In December 2024 Ofcom published its statement on the progress of the first phase of implementation which focuses on ‘illegal harms’, including the ...