The Online Regulation Series | India
September 18, 2023
With almost 500 million Internet users, and a history of mis- and disinformation spreading on social media and messaging apps and occasionally resulting in violence, content moderation has been a pressing issue in India for quite some time. Regulation of content is covered by different legislations under the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act ...
The Online Regulation Series | Singapore
September 18, 2023
Singapore is often deemed to be Asia’s main tech hub and a top global alternative to the Silicon Valley. Many of the world’s major tech platforms – including GIFCT founders Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Youtube – have their headquarters for the Asia Pacific region in the Singapore. The government has been active in supporting the ...
Die Rolle des Internets im Radikalisierungsprozess einer jihadistischen Straftäterin – eine Einzelfallstudie
September 18, 2023
Anhand der Einzelfallstudie des Radikalisierungsprozesses einer jihadistischen Straftäterin möchte dieser Beitrag die besondere Rolle des Internets bei Radikalisierungen von Extremisten aufzeigen. Die Straftäterin war in den Jahren 2007 bis 2010 einePropagandistin, die über das Internet mehrere terroristische Vereinigungen unterstützte, indem sie deren Videobotschaften online verbreitete. In der Einzelfallstudie wird aufgezeigt, wie sich die Jihadistin durch ...
Prolific, Digital, and Violent: The Far-Right’s Online “Republic of Letters”
September 18, 2023
The publication of online manifestos has become a common element associated with far-right terrorist violence in the West. Perpetrators of extremist attacks produce and circulate written materials for inspiration, tactical instruction, and notoriety. This presents policymakers and media organizations with considerable analytical challenges. Each far-right text represents a constituent element within a growing body of ...
Artificial Intelligence and Countering Violent Extremism: A Primer
September 18, 2023
Radicalisation can take place offline as well as online. To what extent the internet plays a role remains contested. Doubtless, there are radical and extreme communities online. This report looked into the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) applications to contribute to countering radicalisation. Mapping the possibilities and limitations of this technology in its various forms, ...
Research Note: More Bucks, Still No Bangs? Why a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Cyberterrorism Still Holds True
September 18, 2023
Taking as reference a cost-benefit analysis of cyberterrorism published in 2004 by Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, this article briefly reviews what happened in the last 15 years in cyberterrorism research, what was correctly forecast, what was wrong and what may happen in the future. Some of the analyses published in during this period have ...
4chan & 8chan embeddings
September 18, 2023
We have collected over 30M messages from the publicly available /pol/ message boards on 4chan and 8chan, and compiled them into a model of toxic language use. The trained word embeddings (±0.4GB) are released for free and may be useful for further study on toxic discourse or to boost hate speech detection systems: textgain.com/8chan. ...
Is IS Online Chatter Just Noise?: An Analysis of the Islamic State Strategic Communications
September 18, 2023
The objective of this research is to analyze the potential use of strategic communication, and specifically, strategic brand management and online communications directed to a foreign target by the Islamic State (IS). For this purpose, a review of official the IS online media releases was carried out to determine if they reflect characteristics, components, or ...
Network-Enabled Anarchy: How Militant Anarcho-Socialist Networks Use Social Media to Instigate Widespread Violence Against Political Opponents and Law Enforcement
September 18, 2023
Our primary research question was whether memes and codewords, private or fringe online forums, and hybrid real-world/online militia—the three characteristic tactics that support outbreaks of extremist violence for both Jihadi and Boogaloo extremism—are also prevalent in anti-fascist and anarcho-socialist groups. To analyze the use and prevalence of memes and other coded language and activity, we ...
The Online Regulation Series | The Philippines
September 18, 2023
The Philippines is one of the countries worst affected by terrorism in the world, ranking as the ninth most affected country in the 2019 Global Terrorist Index. The country has long been investing in its counterterrorism apparatus and there have been some signs that the Philippines might introduce legislation that targets online terrorist content. This ...