Blog
Extremism (Re)defined: Online and Wider implications
March 21, 2024
By Lee Jarvis and Stuart Macdonald The growing number of regulatory regimes aimed at moderating online terrorist and violent extremist content, coupled with more informal processes for law enforcement and other state actors to refer such content to tech companies, have been described as the public-private co-production of security. In this context, it is significant ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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VOX-Pol Newsletter 11(3) March 2024
March 12, 2024
Welcome to Volume 11, Issue 3 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. NEW VOX-Pol REPORT VOX-Pol is pleased to publish its newest report, Online Jihadist Propaganda Dissemination Strategies, by Stuart Macdonald and Sean McCafferty. The report is available in full and for free on the VOX-Pol Publications page. The authors discussed the new report on a Tech Against Terrorism Podcast episode last week, titled ‘How ...
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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 ...
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New VOX-Pol Report: Online Jihadist Propaganda Dissemination Strategies
March 5, 2024
Today, Tuesday 5 March 2024, VOX-Pol publishes its newest report, Online Jihadist Propaganda Dissemination Strategies, by Stuart Macdonald and Sean McCafferty. The report is available in full and for free on the VOX-Pol Publications page. The authors discussed the new report on a Tech Against Terrorism Podcast episode last week, titled ‘How has the Online ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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The Passive Extremism of Social Media in the Bronx Drill Scene
February 14, 2024
By Matthew K. Carter On July 9, 2022, fourteen-year-old Ethan Reyes, better known as drill rapper Notti Osama, was stabbed to death on a New York City subway platform during a confrontation with a fifteen-year-old rival gang member. A couple months later, drill rappers Kyle Richh, Tata, and Jenn Carter, all members of the rap ...
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VOX-Pol Newsletter 11(2) February 2024
February 13, 2024
Welcome to Volume 11, Issue 2 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. VOX-Pol SUMMER EVENTS Swansea University is delighted to, once again, host the VOX-Pol Summer School in 2024. This week-long course will run from Monday 10 to Friday 14 June 2024 (from 9am-5pm) and is designed to provide early career researchers with an expert-led curriculum on ...