Blog

The 2025 AVERT International Research Symposium is an in-person event taking place on 24-26 November 2025 at Deakin University’s Deakin Downtown Campus, Melbourne, Australia. Overseas presenters can register to present online via Zoom. This year, AVERT is collaborating with VOX-Pol and the Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) Conference to deliver this year’s Symposium: Signal or noise? Navigating the changing nature of violent ...

By Bo Min Keum & Richard Frank   Incel research is often conducted from the outside looking in. We were interested in how someone who has left and holds insider experiences views incel research. Research informs policy, interventions, and future academic work; not engaging with insider perspectives risks producing research that is detached, incomplete, and potentially ...

Welcome to Volume 12, Issue 6 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. UPCOMING EVENTS You are invited to a VOX-Pol webinar taking place on Wednesday 18 June 2025, starting at 15:00 (UK time). Register to attend by emailing info@voxpol.eu. This webinar accompanies the recently published United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and VOX-Pol joint report: Right- and left-wing ...

By Stephane J. Baele The rise of “composite” extremism – and of its classifications Over the past few years, cases of violence apparently inspired by unclear or hybrid ideological motivations seem to have multiplied in OECD countries, prompting scholarly debates, law-enforcement worries, and, more recently, political declarations. Particularly striking or lethal instances that receive significant ...

VOX-Pol Next Generation Network Conference 2025 Hosted by Charles University, Prague September 25-26th, 2025 We are pleased to announce the VOX-Pol Next Generation Network Conference, a community of early-career researchers (ECRs) working on issues related to violent online extremism in its many forms. The conference will be held September 25-26th, 2025 at Charles University in ...

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 – ...

Welcome to Volume 12, Issue 5 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. NEW PUBLICATION VOX-Pol is pleased to announce a new report in its publication series: ‘Right- and left-wing violent extremist abuse of digital technologies in South America, Africa and Asia‘. This report, jointly published by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and VOX-Pol, ...

By Sydney Litterer, Ryan Scrivens, Thomas W. Wojciechowski, and Richard Frank This article summarizes a recent study published in Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. Research exploring the online posting patterns and behaviors in spaces known for facilitating violent extremism, especially in online spaces steeped in racially and ethnically motivated (REM) extremist ideologies, has ...