Journal Article

This paper analyses how AI and algorithms are being used to radicalize, polarize, and spread racism and political instability. AI and algorithms are not just tools deployed by national security agencies but contributors to polarization, radicalism and political violence. Securitization processes are a missing link to understanding how AI has been designed and used and ...

Introduction. Extremism—distinct from activism—poses a serious threat to the healthy functioning of a society. In the contemporary world, the ability of extremists to spread their narratives using digital information environments has increased tremendously. Despite a substantial body of research on extremism, our understanding of the role of information and its properties in shaping extremist content ...

Social media is a modern person’s digital voice to project and engage with new ideas and mobilise communities—a power shared with extremists. Given the societal risks of unvetted content-moderating algorithms for Extremism, Radicalisation, and Hate speech (ERH) detection, responsible software engineering must understand the who, what, when, where, and why such models are necessary to protect user safety and free expression. Hence, ...

This article examines algorithmic content moderation, using the moderation of violent extremist content as a specific case. In recent years, algorithms have increasingly been mobilized to perform essential moderation functions for online social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, including limiting the proliferation of extremist speech. Drawing on Katherine Hayles’ concept of “cognitive ...

This article offers a panoramic vision of the studies carried out on the Manosphere and anti-feminism in the Spanish and overarching European context. In this work, we have reviewed the most recent and relevant studies focused on understanding organized online misogyny and toxic technocultures. In addition, the incipient works on the Spanish manosphere developed in ...

After a period of self‐regulation, countries around the world began to implement regulations for the removal of terrorist content from tech platforms. However, much of this regulation has been criticised for a variety of reasons, most prominently for concerns of infringing free speech and creating unfair burdens for smaller platforms. In addition to this, regulation ...

Most analyses of far-right communication on social media focus on one specific platform, while findings are generalized. In this study, I argue that the far right’s use of social media depends on technology affordances – the linkage between platform design and usage – and, thus, might not always be generalizable. After discussing six affordances – ...

While certain areas of the Islamic State’s activities (propaganda, recruitment, etc.) are well researched, there have been few studies covering the efforts of the organization to neutralize deplatformization, even though its inclusion in a unified system makes it possible to successfully fight against the organization. The present study investigated the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) ...

Institutional ethics review procedures aim – in principle – to minimise harm and evaluate risks, providing an important space to consider the safety of participants and researchers. However, literature has questioned the effectiveness of the process, particularly for reviewing ‘risky’ topics in a risk-averse environment. This article reports the findings of interviews with 21 researchers ...

The purpose of this scoping review is to highlight the machine learning tools used in research to address and prevent violent extremism. To achieve this goal, the following objectives guide this study: (1) describe outcomes that have been studied; (2) summarize the data sources used; and (3) determine whether the reporting of machine learning predictive ...