Blog

By Andrew Glazzard The acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence, released on Netflix in March 2025, has generated exceptional volumes of commentary about what it says about being a youth in the technologically enriched Britain of the 2020s. Kate Cantrell and Susan Hopkins, in an article written for The Conversation and republished on the VoxPol blog, summarise ...

By Bo Min Keum & Richard Frank   Incel research is often conducted from the outside looking in. We were interested in how someone who has left and holds insider experiences views incel research. Research informs policy, interventions, and future academic work; not engaging with insider perspectives risks producing research that is detached, incomplete, and potentially ...

By Stephane J. Baele The rise of “composite” extremism – and of its classifications Over the past few years, cases of violence apparently inspired by unclear or hybrid ideological motivations seem to have multiplied in OECD countries, prompting scholarly debates, law-enforcement worries, and, more recently, political declarations. Particularly striking or lethal instances that receive significant ...

By Stuart Macdonald In a recent article, co-authored with Jonathan Hall KC, I made the argument that it is possible to disseminate terrorist propaganda to the public in (what may be regarded by some as) private online spaces. Here, I outline this argument and consider its relevance to the EU’s Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation. ...

By Bo Min Keum and Richard Frank Background Research suggests that participating in online forums give Incels a sense of belonging and validation for their shared grievances and struggles. Therefore, posing the question; why would they stop posting, and what do they say before they do? Given the emerging research on Incel posting trajectories, and ...

By Shaswati Das On 10 May, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire, after finding themselves at the precipice of yet another all-out war. Had the war unfolded, it would have been the fifth war between both nuclear-armed nations, in the last eight decades. Underpinning India’s retaliatory action is the act of one group – ...

By Sydney Litterer, Ryan Scrivens, Thomas W. Wojciechowski, and Richard Frank This article summarizes a recent study published in Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. Research exploring the online posting patterns and behaviors in spaces known for facilitating violent extremism, especially in online spaces steeped in racially and ethnically motivated (REM) extremist ideologies, has ...

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 ...