Blog

By Anna Kruglova and Bruce White The digital landscape demands evolving strategies against violent extremism and terrorism online. Traditional counter-measures by professional institutions often struggle to keep pace with the sophisticated propaganda and disinformation disseminated by extremist groups and hostile actors. Their ability to adapt quickly necessitates democratizing counter-efforts, empowering communities to safeguard online spaces. ...

By Katy Vaughan Ofcom, as the UK’s independent regulator of ‘Online Safety’ is taking a phased approach to the implementation of the Online Safety Act, which passed into law in October 2023. In December 2024 Ofcom published its statement on the progress of the first phase of implementation which focuses on ‘illegal harms’, including the ...

Kate Cantrell, University of Southern Queensland and Susan Hopkins, University of the Sunshine Coast Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece. Out now on Netflix, the four-part series follows the fallout surrounding 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) after he ...

By Joe Whittaker, Elizabeth Pearson, Ashley A. Mattheis, Till Baaken, Sara Zeiger, Farangiz Atamuradova, & Maura Conway There are two words that will strike fear into the hearts of many researchers of online deviance: “Ethics Committee.” Attend a conference or workshop, it is commonplace to have discussions about bureaucratic nightmares which stifle the ability of ...

By Joseph Stabile The US State Department’s 13 January designation of The Terrorgram Collective and three of its leaders serves as the bookend of the now-departed Biden Administration’s efforts to confront white supremacist extremism—a process that began with a presidentially-directed interagency review in January 2021. On its own, the designation carries significant implications for potential ...

By Amelia Cho Introduction The rapid advancement of digital communication technologies has intensified the debate between national security and user privacy. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is widely regarded as a fundamental tool for protecting digital communications, yet it is also exploited by terrorist organisations to evade surveillance. This blog examines the challenges posed by E2EE in ...

By Colin M. Fisher, UCL Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced big changes in how the company addresses misinformation across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Instead of relying on independent third-party factcheckers, Meta will now emulate Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) in using “community notes”. These crowdsourced contributions allow users to flag content they ...

By Alastair Reed, Andrew Glazzard, Samantha Treacy Ever since the rapid rise of the so-called Islamic State and its effective use of online propaganda to recruit and radicalize individuals, countering the communication strategies of terrorists and violent extremists has been a top priority for governments and policymakers. Early approaches generally fell into two categories: disrupting ...

By David Wells Tariffs might not be the only trade obstacle with Trump’s America. “Censorship” could be the next test. There are multiple explanations for January’s changes in how Meta will moderate content across its platforms, including financial ones, the evolving views of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Meta’s policies simply swaying in line with the political pendulum. ...

By Franziska Selzer To combat terrorist content online, platforms must take action. Meta, for instance, reported taking action, including removing content, covering disturbing content with a warning, and disabling accounts, against 30.8 million pieces of terrorist content on Facebook in the first three quarters of 2024. Of this content, over 99% was found by Meta ...