Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience 2024
December 20, 2024
Severe online hate and harassment increased four points across the board in the past year, which was dominated by an unprecedented surge in antisemitism online and offline in the wake of Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7. Decreases in platform enforcement and data access and new threats of hate and disinformation from generative ...
The Evolution of Terrorism in Digital Era: Cyberterrorism, Social Media, and Modern Extremism Chapter
December 19, 2024
This study explores the significant impact of the internet on terrorism and extremism by focusing on three key areas: cyberterrorism, social media usage, and attack planning. Cyberterrorism has emerged as a major threat, with incidents such as the WannaCry ransomware attack highlighting its potential to disrupt critical infrastructures. The study reveals that the low cost ...
The Gamergate Social Network: Interpreting Transphobia and Alt-Right Hate Online
December 19, 2024
This paper explores the relationship of transphobia and other forms of harassment found across the events of the Gamergate hate movement through the development of an interactive social network analysis. With the social network being derived from hundreds of events tagged by hand, special consideration is given to the positionality and biases of its authors ...
Systemic Risk in Digital Services: Benchmarks for Evaluating Management of Risk of Terrorist Content Dissemination
December 19, 2024
The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires designated Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOPs and VLOSEs) conduct assessments of the systemic risk of the dissemination of illegal content through their services- and to mitigate such risk where it arises. With regulators, researchers, civil society, and the general public finally due to see ...
Alternative Narratives and Countering Violent Extremism in the Arc of Instability: Reflections on Post-ISIS Iraq
December 19, 2024
This chapter is a contribution to the debate on information resilience and national security from the perspective of countering violent Islamist extremism in the arc of instability. The narratives crafted by various violent Islamist extremists are a form of information resilience, but in this case, they act as counterforces, hindering state efforts to prepare for ...
ONLINE RADICALIZATION OF YOUTH: PREREQUISITES AND MECHANISMS
December 19, 2024
The article examines online radicalization of youth on social networks. Based on a review of the existing literature on radicalization, I first defined its understanding. Having examined the existing approaches, I joined the opinion that radicalism leads to violence only in some cases. I distinguish between “cognitive” radicalization, or the formation of extreme beliefs, and ...
The World White Web: Uncovering the Hidden Meanings of Online Far-Right Propaganda
December 19, 2024
*OPEN ACCESS* The World White Web provides an interdisciplinary analysis of far-right radicalisation in the digital age, drawing from criminology, history, and computer science to explore how technology and imagery accelerate extremist recruitment. The book examines 20,000 internet memes to reveal white supremacy’s deep historical roots. It demonstrates how far-right propagandists leverage historical narratives and symbols ...
The digital augmentation of extremism: Reviewing and guiding online extremism research from a sociotechnical perspective
December 6, 2024
Online extremism remains a persistent problem despite the best efforts of governments, tech companies and civil society. Digital technologies can induce group polarization to promote extremism and cause substantial changes to extremism (e.g., create new forms of extremism, types of threats or radicalization approaches). Current methods to counter extremism induce undesirable side‐effects (e.g., ostracize minorities, ...
Exiting the Manosphere. A Gendered Analysis of Radicalization, Diversion and Deradicalization Narratives from r/IncelExit and r/ExRedPill
December 5, 2024
The growth of the online ‘manosphere’ has raised significant concerns regarding the movement’s highly misogynistic discourses and related lone offender attacks perpetrated by incels. This article employs a digital ethnography approach to examine r/IncelExit and r/ExRedPill, two forums dedicated to assisting individuals leave the manosphere. Utilizing a gendered perspective, this study delves into narratives from ...
Beyond Black and White: the Intersection of Ideologies in Online Extremist Communities
December 5, 2024
Current literature on online criminal and deviant groups recognises the role of online forums in the transfer of knowledge and socialisation of members, but current research lacks insight on the evolution and convergence of these groups. One area of concerns is how different aspects of these ideologies, most notably misogyny, anti-semitism and racism, are shared ...