Blog

By Alex Newhouse Early in the morning of Jan. 11, the social media platform Parler went offline after Amazon withdrew the platform’s web hosting services. Parler sued Amazon in response. Amazon’s move followed Google and Apple’s banning the Parler app from their app stores. The tech companies cited the platform’s inability or unwillingness to block calls for and threats of ...

By Marc-André Argentino What is the cost of propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories? Democracy and public safety, to name just two things. The United States has received a stark lesson on how online propaganda and misinformation have an offline impact. For weeks, Donald Trump has falsely claimed the November presidential election was rigged and that’s ...

This article is the third of a three-part series. Part one is HERE and part two is HERE. [Ed.] By Anne Speckhard and Molly Ellenberg ICSVE has over the past two years, in partnership with Facebook, run over 125 campaigns in countries and languages all over the globe with good success in reaching the target audience ...

This article is the second of a three-part series. Part one is HERE and part three is HERE. [Ed.] By Anne Speckhard and Molly Ellenberg Research on Instagram in Regard to Terrorist Propagandizing and Recruitment Strategies Most research on the impact of Instagram focuses on the different communities that exist on Instagram. While some communities, such as ...

This article is part one of a three-part series. Part two is HERE and part three is HERE. [Ed.] By Anne Speckhard and Molly Ellenberg Identifying ISIS and Militant Jihadist Supporters on Instagram Identifying those supporting jihadist ideology and groups on Instagram is a relatively simple task. By searching on Islamic terms and names often associated ...

By Joe Whittaker & Chamin Herath On 15 March, 2019, a far-right terrorist conducted two consecutive attacks at Mosques in New Zealand’s capital, Christchurch. The attacker killed 51 people who had come for Friday Prayers and injured 40 more. In August of 2020 he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for his crimes. ...

By Vivian Gerrand The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified calls for urgent action to mitigate some of the worst harms societies are experiencing as a consequence of time spent immersed in social media environments. During the lockdowns, this immersion has gone from partial to almost total. While social media enables information to travel fast, it allows disinformation to spread ...

By Tech Against Terrorism The Digital Services Act (DSA) – announced as part of the EU Commission’s “Shaping Europe’s Digital Future” proposals in February 2020 – has recently closed its public consultation process. The purpose of the DSA is to propose clear rules on the liability for user content, framing the responsibilities of digital services ...

By Jordan McSwiney and Greta Jasser Gab.com is an alternative social networking platform closely associated with the so-called ‘Alt-Right’. Since its public launch in 2017, Gab has provided a safe space for all manner of online far-right communities, a significant portion of which place themselves squarely in the ‘#MAGA’ camp. Our research shows the important ...

By Dimitrios Kalantzis Less than 24 hours after John Earnest opened fire at a San Diego-area synagogue killing one person and injuring three others, the focus of the developing story shifted to his digital life. News outlets reported that Earnest “posted an anti-Jewish screed online about an hour before the attack” and “praised the suspects ...