Tracking down the Candy Crush Terrorist: the fragile relation between gaming motives and radical attitudes
May 7, 2026
The gaming ecosystem is increasingly observed with the concern that it could pose a threat to public safety, and research accumulates evidence for blatant extremism in the surrounding online space of games. Currently, a connection between gaming and extremism can be established through identity related processes, e.g., gaming-related radicalization elements, distal to gaming itself, such ...
Into the Fog of Digital Delusion: The Lighthouse Paradox and the Rise of Far-right Extremism in Australia
May 7, 2026
This thesis examines how extremist far-right recruiters communicate online to support Australia’s countering violent extremism (CVE) early detection efforts. It argues that current strategies—while sometimes effective—overlook online spaces as primary recruitment sites, focus too heavily on detecting already-radicalised individuals, and rely on oversimplified root-cause models. Further, it contends that detection is hindered by representational biases ...
User Journeys in Online Extremist Groups
November 27, 2024
This project by GNET looks at the user journeys of individuals who enter and participate in the online spaces of extremist communities. A user journey here refers to the distinct path a user may follow to reach their goals when accessing and using an online space belonging to extremist communities. User journeys are particularly important in ...
When Opposition Is Extremism: The Dangers of Over-Securitisation and Online Vigilantism
October 25, 2024
The policy brief makes the case that policymakers and practitioners need to consider who the state defines as ‘extremists.’ In the West, terrorism and violent extremism are seen as the most radical expressions of anti-government resistance. Things, however, look different in the Global South where some governments effectively foster extremists of their own while targeting ...
EDL 2.0 and the Online Threat to Democracy
August 12, 2024
VOX-Pol Blog Post. ...