Why do Westerners become foreign fighters in civil conflicts? We explore this question through original data collection on German foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, and test three sets of hypotheses that revolve around socioeconomic integration, online radicalization, and social network mobilization. We conduct link analysis to map the network of German foreign fighters prior ...

Radicalization is a global event affecting different countries and present in different historical contexts. Psychiatrists can help in the analysis of radicalization in individuals who operate autonomously from more radicalized groups. These lone actors or lone wolves are more difficult to spot as there is no unique identification because they operate as self-determined women or ...

Purpose This paper explores the network dynamics of extremist organizations through a detailed case study of the Proud Boys. Using a multiplex network approach, informed by recent advances in research on gangs, we examine how various types of ties influence extremist behavior. Method We first describe three focal networks through which the Proud Boys operate ...

This chapter examines Europol’s Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) and its role in the privatized governance of online media within the broader context of transnational law enforcement and European counter-terrorism policy. Established in 2015, the EU IRU monitors online content and recommends takedowns to hosting platforms based on breaches of terms of service, not legal ...

The 2023 Supreme Court case Twitter v. Taamneh found that defendant social media companies were not liable for aiding and abetting a terrorist attack overseas. The Court alluded to the existence of an alternative set of facts that might alter their analysis or produce a different outcome. This Comment explores those “other contexts” and seeks ...

This systematic review seeks to position online radicalisation within whole system frameworks incorporating individual, family, community and wider structural influences, whilst reporting evidence of public mental health approaches for individuals engaging in radical online content. Methods: Authors searched Medline (via Ovid), PsycInfo (via Ebscohost) and Web of Science (Core Collection), with the use of Boolean ...

Social media’s role in the spread and evolution of extremism is a focus of intense study. Online extremists have been involved in the spread of online hate, mis/disinformation, and real-world violence. However, the overwhelming majority of existing work has focused on right-wing extremism. In this paper, we perform a first of its kind large-scale, data-driven ...

Measuring extremist behavior and discourse online presents a significant methodological challenge largely due to the volume of content. This paper assesses the extent to which discourse communities created by extremists identified through qualitative analysis in prior research are present in a novel Telegram dataset and can be identified through Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling and ...

Purpose Online hate speech (OHS) is becoming a serious problem worldwide including in Bangladesh. This study aims to understand the nature of OHS against religious groups and explore its impact on their social life and mental health. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was followed and 11 in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with the selected OHS victims. ...

This document sets up the main recommendations identified through the three years of engagement and dialouge on this topic. It is anchored in the discussions from the round tables. It further builds on the experiences from UN field presences that are working to address these challenges at country level. The paper is the result of a ...