by Alex Krasodomski-Jones A decade after 7/7, the War on Terror rumbles on. Ten years ago, it was Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein: a battle against dictators and super-terrorists responsible for thousands of deaths in the West and at home. Today it is IS, though the shaky narrative of good versus evil is looking ever-more ...

by Benjamin Ducol Beyond a dichotomic view of radicalisation in the digital era The dichotomisation of “virtual” versus “real world” is one of the major pitfalls in current studies of radicalisation in the digital era. In many cases, scholars tend to conceptualise virtual spaces as autonomous from what actually happens in the “real world” and ...

by Wasim Ahmed I have a social media research blog where I find and write about tools that can be used to capture and analyse data from social media platforms. My PhD looks at Twitter data for health, such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. I am increasingly asked why I am looking at Twitter, ...

Welcome to Vol. 2, Iss. 3 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. The VOX-Pol Network of Excellence is a European Union Framework Programme 7 funded academic research network focused on researching the prevalence, contours, functions, and impacts of Violent Online Political Extremism and responses to it. It is a five-year programme which commenced on 1 January, 2014. We ...

by Jacob Mchangama The global spate of terrorist attacks has brought the phenomenon of online radicalisation to the forefront. Governments and intelligence services warn that extremist groups use social media to recruit new adherents and potential terrorists. From the perspective of human rights, this raises a question – where should the line be drawn between ...

VOX-Pol Research Fellow, Dr Nico Prucha, and Principle Data Scientist, VORTEX, University of Vienna, Ali Fisher, gave an interview to SciDev.Net last week on how the ‘media mujahideen’ of ISIS use modern technology to create films that work so effectively as propaganda for the group. “The main characteristics of the ISIS content is a clear ...

By Sam Garin In a video entitled “There is no Life without Jihad,” young men shaded by verdant palm trees empathetically assure their audience that they understand their struggle as Muslims in a western country. The video shows English-speaking members of the Islamic State give calm, earnest testimonies urging Muslims in the West to join the terrorist ...

Dr. Paul Gill, Senior Lecturer in Security and Crime Science at VOX-Pol partner institution University College London, gave a fascinating presentation of his award-winning research into ‘Lone Actor’ terrorism on Wednesday 15 July at VOX-Pol partner ICSR at King’s College London. Dr. Gill focused on the empirical realities of ‘Lone Actor’ terrorism, how a single ...

by Aaron Brantly and Muhammad al-`Ubaydi The average netizen has terrible digital hygiene. We click on random links, open emails from unknown individuals, use public WiFi hotspots, leave computers and devices unsecured, and often do not even use basic anti-virus packages. Most Chief Information Systems Officers’ largest problem is not a talented nation state, but ...

by Yannick Veilleux-Lepage Although there is nothing new in violent extremist groups quickly adopting new technology, what has hardly any precedent is the breadth of the communication strategy implemented by IS. Not only does IS use new technology to create the content which it releases, it also utilizes new technologies innovatively in the dissemination of ...