Automating Terror: The Role and Impact of Telegram Bots in the Islamic State’s Online Ecosystem
September 24, 2025
In this article, we use network science to explore the topology of the Islamic State’s “terrorist bot” network on the online social media platform Telegram, empirically identifying its connections to the Islamic State supporter-run groups and channels that operate across the platform, with which these bots form bipartite structures. As part of this, we examine ...
The QAnon Security Threat: A Linguistic Fusion-Based Violence Risk Assessment
September 24, 2025
This study compares the narratives and language of QAnon groups in the encrypted messaging apps Telegram and Discord to those observed in the manifestos of terrorists. Drawing on our systematic linguistic analysis of fifteen terrorist manifestos that were published in the past decade, we developed a coding scheme which traces the narratives and linguistic markers ...
Gendered radicalisation and ‘everyday practices’: An analysis of extreme right and Islamic State women-only forums
September 24, 2025
A growing amount of literature is being devoted to interrogating gendered dynamics in both violent extremism and terrorism, contributing to the integration of international and feminist security. This includes how such dynamics can shape differences in the motivations and participation of women and men. By critically analysing ideological gender constructs in two women-only extremist forums ...
‘Frying bacon’ or ‘drinking smoothies’? Disparagement humor in the wartime discourse of a Russian far-right online community
August 22, 2025
The article analyzes the online humorous practices and discursive conventions of a far-right Russian Telegram community during a sociopolitical crisis. A sample of 130 disparagement jokes is examined to find out how existential uncertainty, created by the outbreak of a full-scale war, affects the far-right humorous othering. The jokes were published in a Local Crew ...
Security Awareness for IS-Supporters on Telegram
May 30, 2025
The so-called Islamic State (IS) has always had a strong online presence. The purpose of most IS propaganda is to shape perceptions and polarise the support of their audience, but there are also other forms of communication from the group and its supporters. In this paper, we present an analysis of the content from two ...
TamTam: The Online Drums of Hate
April 25, 2025
Recognizing the correlation between the growing spread of violent extremist and terrorist content on the internet and online platforms and the significant increase in attacks inspired by these posts prompted governments, security agencies, and private companies to launch various countermeasures to reduce the spread and impact of such material. Struggling to adjust to these countermeasures ...
Far-right conspiracy groups on fringe platforms: A longitudinal analysis of radicalization dynamics on Telegram
March 4, 2025
Societal crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, produce societal instability and create a fertile ground for radicalization. Extremists exploit such crises by distributing disinformation to amplify uncertainty and distrust among the public. Based on these developments, this study presents a longitudinal analysis of far-right communication on fringe platforms, demonstrating radicalization dynamics. Public Telegram communication of ...
Recruit and threaten: hate speech detection within the pro-Wagner digital ecosystem on Telegram
March 4, 2025
The PMC Wagner emerged as a central actor in the Russian power projection. This research consists of an evidence-based analysis to grasp the relationships within the pro-Wagner digital ecosystem. Through Socio-Semantic Network Analysis and hate-speech detection using a machine learning model, the study aims to map the PMC Wagner on Telegram and reconstruct its morphological ...
Israel–Hamas war through Telegram, Reddit and Twitter
March 4, 2025
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict started on 7 October 2023, have resulted thus far to over 48,000 people killed including more than 17,000 children with a majority from Gaza, more than 30,000 people injured, over 10,000 missing, and over 1 million people displaced, fleeing conflict zones. The infrastructure damage includes the 87\% of housing units, 80\% of ...
Listening to the “Voice of Islam”: The Turkestan Islamic Party’s Online Propaganda Strategy
February 20, 2025
This article aims to map the online propaganda presence and activities of the Turkestan Islamic Party’s media arm—Islam Awazi (“Voice of Islam”). It also discusses its capabilities in terms of producing new releases and attracting online audiences. In order to reach these objectives, this study exploited a methodology which is a combination of open source ...