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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 channel a month before and a month after two moments of the most acute sociopolitical upheaval, namely, the declaration of mobilization and the attempted coup by the Wagner Group. The findings demonstrate that, after the war started, the community opted for demonizing the single outgroup while attempting to preserve the coherent ingroup by means of building ingroup appreciation within a pro-military nationalist niche. Additional upheavals were framed as irrelevant, compared to the major identity markers and the general crisis of the war, and did not affect either the community’s rhetoric or the othering patterns.

Since the inception of video games, extremist groups have been able create, modify, and weaponise this media for activism and their campaigns. More recently, however, the emergence of gaming-adjacent platforms (most notably Discord, Twitch and Steam) has become a key organisational tool for recruitment and community-building; something that policing communities all over the world have been grappling with, especially in regard to the potential for extremist content to create radicalising effects that lead to political violence. This article explores how policing communities are approaching extremist groups on gaming-adjacent platforms, what strategies they’ve been using, and the effect this has on extremist activism -both in the online, but also more crucially in the offline, space. Using semi-structured interviews with 13 leading P/CVE practitioners, academic and technology industry experts, and content moderation teams, what the article finds is that third-party policing communities are increasingly using more sophisticated tactics to combat extremist content but that these efforts are being increasingly frustrated by the networked nature of extremism and a lack of robust enforcement at platform level. In the future, this research suggests that more transparency about terms of service enforcement from above and mitigation of toxic extremist ‘adjacent’ cultures from below might help foster more resilience against the prevalence of extremism on gaming-adjacent platforms.

The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel marked a pivotal moment not only in Middle East security policy but also in the global Islamist and particularly jihadi propaganda landscape. This article examines how the ensuing digital “victimhood-revenge” narrative rapidly spread across platforms like TikTok, fueling a new wave of radicalization among adolescents in Europe. Drawing on six European case studies from 2023 to 2025—including foiled and executed attacks in Vienna, Solingen, and Zurich—this article identifies a recurring radicalization pattern involving emotionally  vulnerable, digitally native individuals exposed to algorithm-driven Islamist content in social media, but predominantly on TikTok. The analysis conceptualizes this process through the lens of a “Virtual Caliphate Complex” and explores TikTok’s role as a low-threshold gateway into extremist ecosystems. By analyzing cross-platform mobilization dynamics, aesthetic framing, and the hybridization of lone-actor terrorism with online support networks, the article underscores the urgency of adapting P/CVE strategies to algorithmic environments. The conclusion suggests possible policy emphasis on content moderation, digital literacy, and platform accountability—particularly in the context of the European Union’s Digital Services Act legislation. The article contends that today’s prevailing Islamist radicalization pattern reflects not only ideological motivations but also youth-online-culture dynamics and algorithmic influence.

This paper critically examines the role of social media algorithms in amplifying terrorist recruitment efforts in Northern Nigeria. It argues that while platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) are designed to optimize user engagement, their algorithmic logic often favors sensational and polarizing content including extremist propaganda. Terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP have increasingly exploited this digital ecosystem to radicalize and recruit disaffected youth by leveraging local grievances, distorted religious narratives, and emotionally charged media. The paper highlights how the underlying socioeconomic conditions in Northern Nigeria-marked by poverty, youth unemployment, and low education-make the region especially vulnerable to digital radicalization. It also critiques the double standards in how tech platforms respond swiftly to extremism in Western contexts but lag in addressing similar threats in Africa due to inadequate content moderation infrastructure and lack of regional engagement. As a way forward, the paper calls for multistakeholder interventions including digital literacy integration in education, improved collaboration between Nigerian authorities and tech companies, and targeted investment in counter-narratives and economic empowerment programs. In an age where algorithms shape ideologies, combating terrorism in Nigeria requires not only military strategies but also digital vigilance, corporate accountability, and inclusive governance.

This work explores personalities of individuals at risk of Islamist radicalisation. Previous studies have successfully identified radicalised individuals on social media. However, a more prophylactic approach to counter radical communities would be to detect individuals prior to getting radicalised. A manually annotated dataset of 15,195 tweets from 259 persons believed to be at risk of radicalisation was classified according to Big 5 personality traits and compared to the same number of non-radical users. The results show that risk users can successfully be identified and exhibit distributional differences compared to non-radical users for Extraversion and Openness.

Gore-related websites enable the hosting and sharing of illegal videos, including those produced by proscribed terrorist entities. The websites are numerous, free to access, provide no user or child safety features, and have seen a growth in visitor numbers in recent years due to ongoing conflicts. Most gore-related websites offer download and social media share functionality allowing for graphic content, including 1000s showing terrorist violence, to be shared across social media.