Blog

This is part one of a two-part series. Read part II here [Ed.]. By Anne Speckhard And Molly Ellenberg Mohammed Khalifa, otherwise known as Abu Ridwan al-Kanadi, is a Canadian citizen now facing federal prosecution in the United States for his participation in ISIS, particularly for his role in the terrorist group’s media department. The New York ...

By Carli Kulmar and Michael Jensen Even before extremist group activity in Australia’s 2021 anti-lockdown protests was exposed, concern about right-wing extremism in Australia was on the rise. ASIO and the US annual threat estimate have noted right-wing extremism in Australia is on an upward trend. Ideological extremism now makes up 40% of the ASIO caseload. Our research at the University ...

By Brett Solomon On October 28, 2021, before the United Nations Security Council, Access Now spoke on addressing and countering online hate speech and preventing incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence on social media. The Security Council is the United Nations’ most powerful body, with “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.” This ...

By Christian Vorre Mogensen Incels – people living in ‘Inceldom’ – define themselves by their inability to engage in romantic or sexual relations, despite strong wishes to do so. A true Incel is someone who has not, and never will, engage in any such activities or relationships. People referring to themselves as Incels are mostly ...

By Maisie Draper A news story that falsely claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine caused the death of an American doctor was the most viewed article on Facebook in the US for the first three months of 2021. Instead of going public about the platform promoting such misinformation, Facebook held back on publishing the report until The ...

By Anne Speckhard, Maha Ghazi and Molly Ellenberg YouTube, first online in 2005, was one of the earliest social media platforms used by terrorist organizations to spread their propaganda. Although many such groups have used YouTube and other online platforms for malicious purposes, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] has become notorious over the ...

By Ben Lee Video games and right-wing extremism (RWE) seem inseparable. Multiple links have been documented between extreme-right violence and video-game cultures. These include the appearance of terrorist manifestos with references to video games, modifications to popular games to bring them into line with extreme-right values, the presence of extremists on gaming platforms, and a misogyny-laced controversy in video gaming that did ...

By Jonathan Kenyon As society has embraced the Internet, opportunities for those wanting to use the online space for terrorist purposes have also grown, resulting in the spread of violent extremism and extremist ideologies within communities. Radicalisation is viewed as becoming increasingly covert, causing problems for security and intelligence services tasked with tackling this threat. ...

By Isis Garrigos The VOX-Pol Blog was launched in October 2014 and has since become one of the most visited and shared features of the VOX-Pol website. At the outset, the aim of the Blog was to publish short-form original research directly related to online extremism, online terrorism, online radicalisation, and available responses to these. ...

By Suraj Lakhani There has been, especially of late, increasing concern over the misuse of video-games and associated (adjacent) platforms (e.g. Steam, Discord, Twitch, DLive) for the purposes of extremism and violent extremism. Across the European Union (and for that matter globally), policymakers, law enforcement, academics, and counter-extremism practitioners have started to engage more on ...