Strengthening Media and Information Literacy in the Context of Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism: A Focus on South-Eastern Europe
September 18, 2024
This report seeks to raise awareness of critical thinking and analysis, and meaningful engagement in the digital space, in order to build resilience to violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (VERLT) in South-Eastern Europe. ...
What Makes A Video Radicalizing? Identifying Sources of Influence in QAnon Videos
September 17, 2024
In recent years, radicalization is being increasingly attempted on video-sharing platforms. Previous studies have been proposed to identify online radicalization using generic social context analysis, without taking into account comprehensive viewer traits and how those can affect viewers’ perception of radicalizing content. To address the challenge, we examine QAnon, a conspiracy-based radicalizing group, and have ...
Digital media use, depressive symptoms and support for violent radicalization among young Canadians: a latent profile analysis
September 16, 2024
Background Despite the prominent role that digital media play in the lives and mental health of young people as well as in violent radicalization (VR) processes, empirical research aimed to investigate the association between Internet use, depressive symptoms and support for VR among young people is scant. We adopt a person-centered approach to investigate patterns ...
A Dataset for The Study of Online Radicalization Through Incel Forum Archives
September 16, 2024
The incel (involuntary celibate) community is an extremist online community that practices intense misogyny, racism, and that glorifies – and sometimes practices – violence. Work to understand the dynamics within incel communities has been hindered by the fact that these communities are spread over many platforms and many of the more popular forums of the ...
Media framing of far-right extremism and online radicalization in esport and gaming
September 16, 2024
Gaming adjacent platforms have created an expanding ecosystem of online gaming, esport, and social media actors sharing online space, content, communication tools, and users. Esport, in particular, has grown beyond all expectations and is now a global leader in sport fandom and spectatorship. At the same time, the online infiltration and influence of far-right extremism ...
Social Media and Radicalization: An Affordance Approach for Cross-Platform Comparison
September 14, 2024
To accentuate which platform characteristics particularly foster radicalization and extremist dynamics, this contribution investigates the affordances of social media as delineated in contemporary literature, conducting a platform comparison encompassing Telegram, WhatsApp, and X (formerly Twitter). Based on a scoping review, 17 affordances identified from studies researching radicalization dynamics on social media were extracted and categorized. ...
Radicalization Discourse: Consensus Points, Evidence Base and Blind Spots
September 14, 2024
This article examines the consensus points, evidence base and blind spots of radicalization discourse: namely, the approved ways of talking about radicalization/deradicalization that claim a special scientific or scholarly authority and that have become entrenched as a kind of socially sanctioned common sense embedded in academia, the media and government bureaucracy. Drawing on an analysis ...
Combating radicalization by algorithm
September 14, 2024
Many countries have formulated strategies to combat radicalization, and regulating and monitoring recommendations on social network platforms is part of these strategies. This article explores the concept of radicalization and the proposed causal link between recommendations and radicalization, highlighting some of the key characteristics of recommendation engines. Based on this background potential risk mitigation measures ...
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 ...