Migration Moments: Extremist Adoption of Text‑Based Instant Messaging Applications
September 18, 2023
This report examines the patchwork of online text‑based instant messaging applications preferred by jihadist and far‑right extremist groups, with a focus on charting their technical affordances and their host companies’ stances on user privacy, security and regulation. To this end, the report analyses six online messaging services (BCM, Gab Chat, Hoop Messenger, Riot.im, Rocket.Chat and ...
What they do in the shadows: examining the far-right networks on Telegram
September 18, 2023
The present paper contributes to the research on the activities of far-right actors on social media by examining the interconnections between far-right actors and groups on Telegram platform using network analysis. The far-right network observed on Telegram is highly decentralized, similarly to the far-right networks found on other social media platforms. The network is divided ...
A Safe Space to Hate: White Supremacist Mobilisation on Telegram
September 18, 2023
The briefing highlights how through its limited content moderation policies Telegram has become a safe space for white supremacists to share and discuss a range of explicit extremist material. Furthermore, it shows that through the many of these Telegram communities have become permissive environments where overt calls for violence and support for terrorism is widespread. ...
Online Deceptions: Renegotiating Gender Boundaries on ISIS Telegram
September 18, 2023
This resarch note examines the ways in which Islamic State supporters on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, renegotiate gender boundaries. The introduction positions receptions of female ISIS accounts in the online space within the context of the roles that women are expected to fill and ISIS’s tentative acceptance of women fighting on the battlefield. An ...
The Virus of Hate: Far-Right Terrorism in Cyberspace
September 18, 2023
Founded in 1996, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) is one of the leading academic institutes for counter-terrorism in the world, facilitating international cooperation in the global struggle against terrorism. ICT is an independent think tank providing expertise in terrorism, counter-terrorism, homeland security, threat vulnerability and risk assessment, intelligence analysis and national security and defense ...
Indonesia and the Tech Giants vs ISIS Supporters: Combating Violent Extremism Online
September 18, 2023
The Indonesian government is cooperating more effectively now with private sector technology giants such as Google and Facebook to remove extremist content from social media platforms. Even as the hiccups in their relationship are being worked out, the extremists seem to be finding low-tech ways around blockages. The 8-9 May 2018 riot of terrorist suspects ...
UK Insight Report Volume 4 Summary
September 18, 2023
The OCCI Insight Reports equip NGO partners on an ongoing basis with the knowledge needed to develop effective, targeted campaigns. Without access to in-depth, data-driven insights into the fast-evolving landscape of extremist and terrorist propaganda, narratives and networks, it is impossible to mount a proportional targeted response. Additionally, the reports highlight recommendations for future counterspeech ...
Terror in the Dark: How Terrorists Use Encryption, the Darknet, and Cryptocurrencies
September 18, 2023
This report demonstrates how terrorists and extremists have utilised the Darknet to mask their communication and propaganda efforts, to recruit and radicalise, and to gain material benefits such as illicit goods, including, but not limited to, weapons and fraudulent documents. In addition, this report notes the growing tendency of these individuals to utilise cryptocurrencies for ...
Encrypted Jihad: Investigating the Role of Telegram App in Lone Wolf Attacks in the West
September 18, 2023
The study aims to capture links between the use of encrypted communication channel -Telegram and lone wolf attacks occurred in Europe between 2015-2016. To understand threads of ISIS communication on Telegram we used digital ethnography approach which consists of the self-observation of information flows on four of ISIS’s most celebrated telegram Channels. We draw on ...
IS and the Jihadist Information Highway – Projecting Influence and Religious Identity via Telegram
September 18, 2023
Groups such as al-Qaida (AQ) have pursued spectacular attacks to garner media attention and popularize their cause. What is often not noted, however, is that for those who submit themselves to the religious thinking of al-Qaida – and nowadays the self-designated “Islamic State” (IS) – the militant struggle is intertwined with the duty to call ...