Newsletter
VOX-Pol Newsletter 8(3) September 2021
September 7, 2021
Welcome to Volume 8, Issue 3 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. MOST-READ VOX-Pol BLOG POSTS OF 2021 From September 2020 to July 2021, VOX-Pol published 48 Blog posts on the topics of online extremism and terrorism. The events of 6 January, 2021 at the US Capitol led to a big increase in traffic to VOX-Pol’s online ...
Blog
Incel Culture: What We’ve Learned From Investigating Plymouth Attacker’s Digital Footprint
September 1, 2021
By Blyth Crawford and Florence Keen In the wake of a mass shooting in Plymouth, England, fresh questions are being asked about incel culture and whether crimes committed by its adherents should be considered terrorism. Jake Davison went on a shooting spree in his hometown, killing five people, including his mother, before taking his own life. As part ...
News
The Top Five Most-Read VOX-Pol Blog Posts of 2021
August 27, 2021
From September 2020 to July 2021, VOX-Pol published 48 Blog posts covering many aspects of online extremism and terrorism. The events of 6 January 2021 in the US Capitol building led to a big increase in traffic to the VOX-Pol online platforms, and total page views this year has increased 30% on the previous year. ...
Blog
Content Moderation, Transparency (Reporting) and Human Rights
July 28, 2021
Our Cyber Threats Research Centre colleagues couldn’t host an in-person TASM Conference this year, but instead organised a week of virtual events from 21 to 25 June 2021. This post is the third in a three-part series based on overviews of three of the virtual TASM panels . Read parts one and two. [Ed.] By Lucy Brown The Christchurch terrorist ...
Blog
Algorithmic Transparency and Content Amplification
July 21, 2021
Our Cyber Threats Research Centre colleagues couldn’t host an in-person TASM Conference this year, but instead organised a week of virtual events from 21 to 25 June 2021. This post is the second in a three-part series based on overviews of three of the virtual TASM panels . Read parts one and three. [Ed.] By Adam Whitter-Jones Many Internet and social ...
Blog
Mis/Dis and Mal-Information
July 14, 2021
Our Cyber Threats Research Centre colleagues couldn’t host an in-person TASM Conference this year, but instead organised a week of virtual events from 21 to 25 June 2021. This post is the first in a three-part series based on overviews of three of the virtual TASM panels. Read parts two and three. [Ed.] By August Dichter How do we ...
Blog
The European Union Moves to Fight Terrorist Content Online
July 7, 2021
By The Soufan Centre On June 7, 2021, the European Union (EU) adopted new rules, known as the Terrorist Content Online Regulation (2021/784), targeting the online dissemination of terrorist content. The new rules are the most aggressive effort to date by the EU to compel hosting service providers to remove terrorist content. There is little doubt that ...
Blog
Tech Against Terrorism Response to the EU’s Terrorist Content Online Regulation
June 30, 2021
By Tech Against Terrorism Support mechanisms, legal certainty, and safeguards needed to avoid negative impact On 28 April the EU Parliament announced that the regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online had been approved. On 7 June, the law, which was initially introduced by the Commission and has gone through several iterations, entered into force and ...
Blog
Using Twitter as a Data Source: An Overview of Social Media Research Tools (2021)
June 23, 2021
By Wasim Ahmed When I wrote the original version of this post back in 2015, and the revised versions in 2017 and 2019, I wasn’t sure how long Twitter would provide access to its data. This was because after a string of public scandals other platforms such as Facebook had been closing or limiting access. Fast-forward to 2021, and something ...
Blog
Examining Online Indicators of Extremism in Violent Right-Wing Extremist Forums
June 16, 2021
This article summarises a recent study published in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. By Ryan Scrivens, Amanda Isabel Osuna, Steven M. Chermak, Michael Whitney, and Richard Frank. Although many law enforcement and intelligence agencies are concerned about online communities known to facilitate violent right-wing extremism, little is empirically known about the presence of extremist ideologies, ...