Canadian right-wing extremism is now recognized as a serious problem and their use of social media to circulate hate, violence, and racism is a growing concern. However, not until circa 2016 did Canadian academics, police agencies, and intelligence agencies view the threat of right-wing extremism as a national security issue within Canada. My dissertation examines ...

This paper argues that companies’ efforts to deal with TVEC have been hampered at the outset by a tendency to define TVEC extremely narrowly. Still, only a tiny proportion of content that could reasonably be categorized as TVEC is included in most definitions. An outsized focus on pre-identified Islamic extremists and terrorist groups means that ...

How does removing the leadership of online hate organizations from online platforms change behavior in their target audience? We study the effects of six network disruptions of designated and banned hate-based organizations on Facebook, in which known members of the organizations were removed from the platform, by examining the online engagements of the audience of ...

This article brings together expert assessments concerning the relationship between children and online extremism, to help inform scholars and policymakers seeking to address the effects of early childhood exposure to extremism content. Our approach comprised of eight semi-structured interviews involving experts, practitioners, and policymakers offering their professional assessments on the relationship between children and online ...

This article examines the digital convergence of distinct extremist milieus involved in the Patriotic Union’s thwarted plot to overthrow the German government in December 2022. By specifically investigating the merging process of involved digital networks of the German Corona-protest and Sovereign Citizens milieu over time, this article analyses the event’s broader implications for the German ...

This Element aims to better understand the role of the internet in the radicalization process, focusing on how online factors contribute to self-radicalization. Specifically, it examines the neurocognitive process of online radicalization by analyzing the impact of terrorist and extremist propaganda videos on individuals’ cognitive empathy using electroencephalography (EEG). Ultimately, this research aims to provide ...

Previous research has documented that the internet plays an increasingly important role in facilitating involvement in terrorism. However, the level of specificity of this literature is low. Advancing current insights, we examined how three concrete examples of active (i.e., generate/disseminate terrorist propaganda; interact with co-ideologues) and two examples of passive (i.e., learn about terrorist ideologies/actors; ...

This protocol outlines a systematic review that aims to understand the effectiveness of educational programmes, delivered both online and offline, designed to prevent and counter the effects of online violent extremist propaganda in multiple languages. The primary objective is to assess the impact of interventions on reducing violent extremist attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. A secondary ...

Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly popular for social movements of all kinds. Social movement organizations (SMOs) use them to interact and mobilize also across borders. Previous research has highlighted the opportunities for transnational networking and the resulting reduction in the importance of local dependency for SMOs. One movement that combines local direct action ...

The abuse of digital technologies by violent extremists is keeping pace with the exponential growth of new technologies, and poses multifaceted challenges to national and global security. Cyber-enabled threats manifest for example in terrorist-operated websites, the shift to alternative or fringe social media platforms, the use of the decentralised web, the exploitation of gaming and ...