Blog

By Michele Grossman Like many other Western liberal democracies, Australia is currently experiencing a range of challenges to both the stability and sanctity of democratic structures and institutions and the beliefs and values that underwrite them. Threats to democracies are nothing new – they have existed for as long as democracies themselves. However, faced with ...

The VOX-Pol Blog has been running for ten years this month and currently contains nearly 500 posts. On it you’ll find book reviews, research article summaries, reflection pieces, cross-posts, and translations.  The Blog publishes short (under 1000 words) articles every week at midday on Wednesdays for our audience of researchers, policymakers, law enforcement, social media company ...

H. Colleen Sinclair, Louisiana State University There has been a lot of research on the types of people who believe conspiracy theories, and their reasons for doing so. But there’s a wrinkle: My colleagues and I have found that there are a number of people sharing conspiracies online who don’t believe their own content. They ...

By Gerard Gill Recent developments in violent extremism have included an uptick in the salience of mixed, unclear, and unstable (MUU) or ‘salad bar’ ideologies. These are worldviews where numerous, sometimes disparate perspectives combine in a dynamic and evolving manner, resulting in a belief system that is hard to comprehensively define. A growth in MUU ...

Welcome to Volume 11, Issue 10 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. UPCOMING EVENT VOX-Pol Coordinator Stuart Macdonald is co-organising and speaking at the webinar, Addressing Terrorism and Social Media in West Africa, taking place this Thursday 10 October. VOX-Pol Member Alta Grobbelaar is also speaking at the event, and it’s chaired by Christogonus Ibe, of the group, African Youths Initiative ...

By Sean McCafferty and Marjuka Binte Afzal Bangladesh’s recent political turmoil has sparked interest from Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda (AQ), both seeing the regime change as a strategic opportunity. With the government in transition, security reforms needed, and jihadist propaganda targeting Bangladesh, there is a risk of increased jihadist activity during the country’s democratic ...

Anthony English, The Open University For some, the shocking scenes of violence which have erupted across dozens of locations in England and Northern Ireland will evoke an all-too-real concern – could someone close to me get involved in the violence? Alongside those directly affected by the act of rioting itself, there are another set of ...

Sara H Wilford, De Montfort University Look closely at the pictures of the violent unrest that has spread across England and Northern Ireland and you will notice something that is not being spoken about. The rioters seen fighting, attacking police and setting fire to buildings are often middle aged – people in their 40s, 50s ...

By Jonathan Collins This blog offers a condensed version of a recently published article in Social Media + Society. To read the full version, click here. The increased participation within far-right alternative platforms (Alt-Tech) is generating significant attention from scholars interested in the community’s communication patterns and dynamics. Perhaps unsurprising for a movement seeking or ...

Welcome to Volume 11, Issue 9 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. VOX-Pol ON LINKEDIN VOX-Pol is now on LinkedIn. Please like and follow our new page!  We are still on X @VOX_Pol with live updates, and check out our YouTube channel for videos of our events and workshops. VOX-Pol UPCOMING EVENT You are invited to an open source intelligence (OSINT) workshop, being held ...