Blog

by Beatrice Berton and Patryk Pawlak Jihadist militants have long operated in the pockets of instability which stretch from Bamako to Bagdad. However, they have also been making the most of governance problems in the world’s biggest open space: the internet. Forced to confront this fact, the governments of France, the UK and the US, ...

VOX-Pol has launched a YouTube channel that collects video material related to violent online political extremism. Some of the videos on the channel are VOX-Pol’s own material such as British blogger and social media analyst Eliot Higgins’ (aka Brown Moses) public lecture in Dublin organised by VOX-Pol; discussions at the Panel on Monitoring the Net ...

“The self-proclaimed ‘Islamic State’ has mastered the use of social media outlets for its most strategic purpose: to indoctrinate, radicalise and subsequently recruit online consumers while projecting a ‘new Sunni Muslim’ role model and way of life”, VOX-Pol Research Fellow Dr Nico Prucha has said. Dr Prucha was talking to a packed audience at the International ...

On this week’s blog, Professor Gabriel Weimann discusses his new book, published this month, From Theatres to Cyberspace: The Media and Terrorism which examines changing arenas of terrorist communication with a particular focus on emerging trends in the use of social media. by Prof. Gabriel Weimann The seed was planted in 1972 in Munich, Germany. ...

Social media companies, law enforcement agencies and free speech activists all agree that open discussions among them are useful and necessary in dealing with the issue of social media being used as a recruitment tool by violent radical groups such as ISIS, VOX-Pol’s Dr. Maura Conway has said. Speaking to techPresident shortly after conclusion of ...

by Anna Orosz The Center for Media, Data and Society at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary hosted the third VOX-Pol workshop on 5 – 6 March with the participation of nearly 40 experts from policy making, human rights groups, activists, law enforcement, social media companies, and academia. The diverse background and expertise of the participants enabled ...

The workshop format is designed to encourage dialogue and debate. In order to do so, each session will begin with 3-4 participants offering opening remarks of approximately 10 minutes to help frame the discussion, overview current policy or practice, offer a specific case study or example, present recent research findings, outline a current advocacy campaign ...

by Rebecca MacKinnon In response to the tragic massacre in Paris, the French government has called for UN member states to work together on an international legal framework that would place greater responsibility on social networks and other Internet platforms for terrorist use of their services. In addressing the problem of terrorist use of social networking ...

by Andrew Hoskins and Ben O’Loughlin In the past two decades we have passed through three phases of media ecology, and each has shaped a different way media have entered into the operations and understandings of war and conflict. The 1990s saw the final stage of broadcast era war. National and satellite television and the press had ...

As VOX-Pol’s March workshop in Budapest on the role of social media and internet companies in responding to violent online political extremism draws nearer, its exciting line-up of speakers is continuing to grow. Twitter will be there along with representatives from other social media giants. Rebecca MacKinnon, former CNN Bureau Chief, blogger, and co-founder of Global ...