Terrorism and the Mass Media after Al Qaeda: A Change of Course?
September 18, 2023
This article analyzes the possible relationship between terrorist groups and the media. As an example, a case study on the Al Qaeda organization will be used. Our methodology will involve analyzing the content of its public statements and examining the developments that have taken place during its history as an organization. Both perspectives suggest that ...
Islamophobia and Twitter: A Typology of Online Hate Against Muslims on Social Media
September 18, 2023
The Woolwich attack in May 2013 has led to a spate of hate crimes committed against Muslim communities in the United Kingdom. These incidents include Muslim women being targeted for wearing the headscarf and mosques being vandalized. While street level Islamophobia remains an important area of investigation, an equally disturbing picture is emerging with the ...
J M Berger on the Role of Communications Technology in Mediating Apocalyptic Communities
September 18, 2023
“Social Apocalypse: The role of communications technology in mediating apocalyptic communities”, originally published by Brookings Institution on 28 May 2015 ...
The Hidden Face of Jihadist Internet Forum Management: The Case of Ansar Al Mujahideen
September 18, 2023
This article offers a descriptive analysis of the private interactions which took place on the jihadist Internet forum known as Ansar Al Mujahideen between 2008 and 2010. The analysis of the non-visible part of the forum contributes to a more robust underpinning of some current assumptions regarding the jihadist Internet infrastructure and its hierarchical dependence ...
The Dark Side of the Web: Italian Right-Wing Extremist Groups and the Internet
September 18, 2023
Focusing on extreme-right organisations in Italy, this article addresses the specific use of the Internet by extremist groups and its potential role for the formation of collective identity, organisational contacts and mobilisation. The analysis includes both political parties and non-party organisations, even violent groups. Through the combination of Social Network Analysis (SNA) of web linkages ...
Making Friends and Enemies on Social Media: The Case of Gun Policy Organizations
September 18, 2023
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of interest groups in the formation of online echo chambers and to determine whether interest groups’ use of social media contributes to political polarization. This study used a content analysis of nearly 10,000 tweets (from 2009 to 2014) by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun ...
Pathways to Violent Extremism in the Digital Era
September 18, 2023
The Internet is often singled out as the key means through which extremists and terrorists are radicalised. Yet, argue Charlie Edwards and Luke Gribbon, research thus far has fallen short of unearthing the actual mechanisms through which this radicalisation takes place. Using examples from a wider study, they explore different ways in which individuals have ...
Neo-Nazis Sympathizers on the Forums of the Romanian Online Publications
September 18, 2023
The research aims to highlight how the forums of the Romanian online publications may often become spaces for right-wing extremist propaganda. The case study includes about 1.000 comments of the readers, expressed on the articles about a protest of several intellectuals against a TV program of the Romanian public Television (TVR), where Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, ...
Radicals Online: The Hungarian Street Protests of 2006 and the Internet
September 18, 2023
Chapter in book, ‘Finding the Right Place on the Map’, Jakubowicz & Miklos Sükösd (eds.). The chapter looks at the role of the Internet in the street protests in Hungary in 2006 and examines how the protests played out online. Content analysis of extreme right-wing online media (major websites, news portals, mailing lists, discussion forums ...
“Linksextremismus im Internet”, Extremismus in Deutschland
September 18, 2023
Die Autoren nehmen sich des Problems der Nutzung des Internets durch Linksextremisten an und analysieren die unterschiedlichen “Gesichter“ des linksextremismus im Internet. ...