Blog
Bad news travels fast: the co-optation of mainstream media to promote radical and extremist ideologies online
April 10, 2024
By Dr Melissa-Ellen Dowling Note: This blog post is a modified version of the article: Melissa-Ellen Dowling (2024) News to me: far-right news sharing on social media, Information, Communication & Society, 27:1, 39-55. To learn more about this research, please see the original study, available at: DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166796. How are extremist political ideologies communicated online? What enables political claims to gain traction ...
Blog
Seeing Eye to Eye: The Delphi Method & Potential Benefits to Mulistakeholderism in the P/CVE Space
March 28, 2024
By Ninian Frenguelli The Seeing Eye to Eye: Developing Sustainable Multistakeholder Communities (SE2E) project was developed and funded through the 2022 Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) Conference sandpit event. The project aim is conducting empirical research into how various stakeholders view and experience multistakeholderism in countering terrorism and violent extremism online (TVE) as part of ...
Blog
Understanding Incels’ Psychology, Ideology, and Networking
March 20, 2024
By Joe Whittaker (Swansea University), William Costello (University of Texas at Austin), and Andrew Thomas (Swansea University) Involuntary Celibates (incels) have become a prescient security concern in recent years. This is, in large part, due to the handful of terror attacks conducted by individuals who are part of the online movement, who forge a sense ...
Blog
Using AI to monitor the internet for terror content is inescapable – but also fraught with pitfalls
March 13, 2024
Stuart Macdonald, Swansea University; Ashley A. Mattheis, Dublin City University, and David Wells, Swansea University Every minute, millions of social media posts, photos and videos flood the internet. On average, Facebook users share 694,000 stories, X (formerly Twitter) users post 360,000 posts, Snapchat users send 2.7 million snaps and YouTube users upload more than 500 ...
Blog
Exploring Far-Right Community Building through Netnography
March 6, 2024
By Jonathan Collins This piece examines how far-right online communities on the social media platform Gab Social are built through identity-building narratives. It is also part of a recently published article in Terrorism and Political Violence. Introduction Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are taking steps to counter harmful far-right content and ...
Blog
Seeing Eye to Eye: The Crucial Role of Legitimacy in Multistakeholder Initiatives
February 28, 2024
By Lea Brost The Seeing Eye to Eye: Developing Sustainable Multistakeholder Communities (SE2E) project was developed and funded through the 2022 Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) Conference sandpit event. The project aim is conducting empirical research into how various stakeholders view and experience multistakeholderism in countering terrorism and violent extremism online (TVE) as part of ...
Blog
The Dangers of Generative AI and Extremism
February 21, 2024
by Sam Jackson and JM Berger Generative AI tools have exploded in number and complexity within a few short years. Products such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and countless others represent a massive leap forward over earlier efforts in both text and image generation. Some AI evangelists even suggest that these models could soon supplement or replace people in professional roles, including ...
News
Are you interested in the inaugural VOX-Pol Next Generation Network Conference?
February 8, 2024
VOX-Pol Next Gen Conference – Call for Papers and Participants The VOX-Pol Next Generation Network invites early career researchers to submit papers for, and participate in, a new one-day conference on June 17th, 2024, immediately preceding the annual TASM conference. Hosted at Swansea University by VOX-Pol’s new Next Gen Network, this event offers a unique ...
Blog
Seeing Eye to Eye: Viewing Multistakeholder Work through a Participatory Lens
January 31, 2024
By Ashley A. Mattheis The Seeing Eye to Eye: Developing Sustainable Multistakeholder Communities (SE2E) project was developed and funded through the 2022 Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) Conference sandpit event. The project aim is conducting empirical research into how various stakeholders view and experience multistakeholderism in countering terrorism and violent extremism online (TVE) as part ...
Blog
JeSuisCharlie was one of the most viral hashtags in history – here’s why it wouldn’t happen today
January 17, 2024
By Emma Connolly, The Open University It will be nine years on January 7 since a shooting at French weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo killed 12 and injured 11 of its employees. The attack led to an immediate and unprecedented outpouring of solidarity around the world. Much of this support was organised online, using the ...