Blog

By Aleksandra Kuczerawy The European Commission is encouraging Internet intermediaries to take up more proactive stance in fighting illegal content online. Voluntary measures may lead, however, to the loss of a liability exemption offered by the E-Commerce Directive. The Commission attempts to convince the intermediaries that this would not be the case, and discusses the ...

By Laurence Bindner and Raphael Gluck On April 27 2018, a Europol press release announced that new action was underway to disrupt ISIS’[1] ability to spread its propaganda online. The press release referred to an operation that commenced two days earlier, which was led by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office and coordinated with six European countries ...

On 12 November, a workshop on ‘Understanding the Impact of Media Terrorism Reporting: A Front Line Practitioner’s Perspective’ was held in Stockholm, Sweden at Exit Sweden’s offices. This event was organised within the framework of the research project ‘Developing a Broadcasting Model to CVE,’ coordinated by Melbourne’s Victoria University and Exit Sweden, in partnership and with the support ...

By Loránd Bodó Understanding terrorists’ use of the Internet is of paramount importance, especially in the context of today’s digital efforts to counter violent extremism. In particular, IS and its unprecedented, successful, multilingual and multimedia online campaigns have led to a surge of academic interest across the globe since 2014. Tech and social media companies ...

The VOX-Pol team were in Brussels on the 5 – 6 December for this year’s Security Research Event. The event was held in the Square Convention Centre located in the heart of Brussels. Under the theme ‘Making Europe a safer place: demonstrating the impact of EU‑funded security research’, the Security Research Event aimed to demonstrate ...

On 5 December, VOX-Pol Coordinator, DCU’s Prof. Maura Conway, supplied an overview of 2018 activity in violent extremist and terrorist online activity at the European Union Internet Forum’s (EUIF) annual ministerial-level meeting. The event took place in the Berlaymont building, the headquarters of the European Commission, and was hosted by Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and ...

By Tiana Gaudette, Garth Davies, and Ryan Scrivens This blog is Part II of II. Click here for Part I. This blog is the second of a two-part series that was presented at the ‘VOX-Pol Conference – Violent Extremism, Terrorism, and the Internet: Present and Future Trends’ in Amsterdam on 20 August 2018. Last week on ...

By Tiana Gaudette, Garth Davies, and Ryan Scrivens This blog is the first of a two-part series; it was originally presented at the ‘VOX-Pol Conference – Violent Extremism, Terrorism, and the Internet: Present and Future Trends’ in Amsterdam on 20 August 2018. Like other extremist movements, right-wing extremists from across the globe have exploited the power of the ...

Earlier this month (9 Nov.), Hassan Khalif Shire Ali (30) carried out a terrorist attack on Bourke Street mall in Melbourne, Australia in which he stabbed one person to death and injured two others. Attention immediately turned to whether Shire Ali was in direct–potemtially online–contact with so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS). The Australian Federal Police later said ...

By  Jennifer Yang Hui In the wake of high-profile terrorist activities in Indonesia, social media’s role in violent extremism is once again under scrutiny. The 36-hour standoff on 8 May 2018 between inmates linked to the so-called Islamic State (IS) and prison officers at Mako Brimob (the detention centre of the Indonesian National Police Mobile ...