Eco-Fascism Online: Conceptualizing Far-Right Actors’ Response to Climate Change on Stormfront
August 29, 2024
Expressions of ‘eco-fascism’ are said to entail ethnonationalist actors advocating extreme population control measures, and accelerationists hastening the collapse of societies worldwide. These expressions emerge from political-ideological environments in which Global North actors have erroneously assigned blame for climate change with the Global South, through rhetoric about migration, population control and fossil fuel usage. To ...
Financial Extremism: The Dark Side of Crowdfunding and Terrorism
August 29, 2024
This study sheds light on the emerging threat of terrorists, particularly Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations, leveraging online crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies. The recent events of October 7, 2023, highlight the pressing nature of this issue. A systematic case analysis reveals the sophisticated exploitation of digital finance for discreet resource accumulation, circumventing traditional oversight. The ...
In Mapping Digital Jihad: Understanding the Structure and Evolution of al-Qaeda’s Information Ecosystem on the Surface Web
August 29, 2024
This article, which combines social network analysis and open-source intelligence, discusses the functions, structure, and evolution of al-Qaeda’s (AQ) information ecosystem on the surface web in the second half of 2023. It argues that despite preferring Rocket Chat as a primary communication channel, this terrorist organisation developed an extensive and robust propaganda distribution network detectable ...
Addressing Toxicity and Extremism in Games: Conversations with the Video Game Industry
August 28, 2024
There has been an increased focus on reducing hate, harassment, and extremist exploitation in digital games through solutions from community management, trust and safety, and design perspectives. Despite this attention, the industry lacks basic standards around these issues and efforts in this area are stymied by the ubiquity of “toxic gamer culture” and fears in ...
Brethren in Terror: Mapping ISIS and Boko Haram Digital Campaigns
August 28, 2024
Scholars have increasingly sought commonalities among Islamist radical groups, such as ISIS and Boko Haram, despite their ideological differences. The purpose of this qualitative study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of both ISIS and Boko Haram’s digital campaigns to identify similarities and differences in the content of their digital messaging. Adopting reflexive thematic analysis ...
LIVE TERROR A NEW WAY/MODEL OF ONLINE RADICALIZATION?
August 28, 2024
With the exponential development of the virtual environment and social networks, radical elements have managed to promote and disseminate their radical ideas, in less time, to a wider and more diversified audience than in the past. This aspect has caused a shift of radicalization processes from the offline environment to the online environment, turning online ...
Terrorism New Wave: The Same Style but New Ways in the Context of Online Radicalization
August 28, 2024
Radicalization, which is influenced by social, cognitive, and economic variables, is the mental process that justifies violence or violent behavior. Since the invention of the Internet radical organizations have modified their tactics in order to fit the new environment. The Internet has evolved into more than simply a platform for extremist activity; it has also ...
Digital Reconstruction: A Critical Examination of the History and Adaptation of Ku Klux Klan Websites
August 28, 2024
In response to the data revolution, academic research and media attention have increasingly focused on the technological adaptation and innovation displayed by the far right. The greatest attention is paid to social media and how groups and organizations are utilizing technological advancement and growth in virtual networks to increase recruitment and advance radicalization on a ...
Gendered Extremism in the Pacific on 4chan: A Mixed-methods Exploration of Australian and New Zealanders’ Concepts of Women, Gender, and Sexual Violence on /Pol/
August 28, 2024
The association between 4chan and online extremist subcultures has seen increasing academic scrutiny—particularly following the 2019 Christchurch attack by a right-wing terrorist who frequented the anonymous forums. Gender-based extremism features as one (of many) critical subcultures that commands our academic attention, though few studies to date have sought to capture and assess the entire landscape ...
Hybrid Movements, Digital Technology, and the Rise and Fall of Far-Right Islamist Protest Mobilization in Indonesia
August 28, 2024
What explains the rise and fall of far-right Islamist protest mobilization in contemporary Indonesia? The 2016-2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election witnessed significant growth in support for and mobilization of the far-right. While far-right Islamist mobilization has occurred regularly since the fall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, its longevity and impact on electoral politics has ...