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This report represents the interim findings of a two-year study designed to increase understanding of the social media footprint of right-wing extremism (RWE) in Canada. This work is part of a larger project designed to understand RWE in Canada led by Ontario Tech University (OTU), in partnership with Michigan State University and the University of New Brunswick. This team are currently working on a similar project designed to map offline RWE in Canada. The project follows a similar study delivered in 2015, enabling researchers and policymakers to understand how RWE has changed in the past five years.

Von Christchurch bis Halle: Wie sich der Rechtsterrorismus neu erfindet
Radikale und extreme Rechte vernetzen sich längst nicht mehr nur durch geheime Treffen. Sie sind ganz offen im Internet unterwegs, über alle nationalen Grenzen hinweg. Ihr Umgang mit der digitalen Infrastruktur ist versiert. Ihre Mittel: Strategiepapiere, Guerilla-Marketing und organisierte Hasskampagnen. An die Stelle straff organisierter Gruppen treten immer öfter lose Netzwerke. Viele radikalisieren sich, ein Teil von ihnen greift zur Gewalt, einige von ihnen töten. Karolin Schwarz, Journalistin und Expertin für rechte Propaganda im Internet, zeigt, wie sich Rechtsextremismus organisiert und eine neue Form des globalen Terrorismus entsteht, dessen Gewalt zum Ausbruch kommt. Parallel tragen rechtspopulistische Regierungen und totalitäre Regime Lüge und Hetze über das Netz nach Europa – eine unheilvolle Allianz. Schwarz macht deutlich: Gesellschaft, Justiz und Politik sind keineswegs wehrlos. Dafür müssen sie rechte Strategien und Technologien aber kennen und verstehen.

Thought-provoking and timely, this book addresses the increasingly widespread issue of online political hatred in Europe. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it examines both the contributions of new technologies, in particular social networks, to the rise of this phenomenon, and the legal and political contexts in which it is taking place. Giovanni Ziccardi also evaluates possible remedies for the situation, including both legal and technological solutions, and outlines the potential for a unified European framework to counter the spread of hatred online.

To prevent and counter the spread of illegal hate speech online, in May 2016, the Commission agreed with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube a “Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online”. The implementation of the Code of Conduct is evaluated through a regular monitoring exercise set up in collaboration with a network of organisations located in the different EU countries. Using a commonly agreed methodology, these organisations test how the IT companies are implementing the commitments in the Code.

In 2020, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Berlin carried out a sample analysis to test the extent to which YouTube, Facebook and Instagram block “manifestly illegal” terrorist content upon notification. Our findings raise doubts that the currently applied compliance systems of these companies achieve the objectives of making their services safe for users. As a result, CEP proposed requirements for effective and transparent compliance regimes with a focus on automated decision-making tools and lessons learned from the regulation of the financial industry. This Policy Paper combines all the relevant lessons learned and gives concrete recommendations on how to make the DSA also an effective regulation against terrorist content online.

U.K. Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) Case Officers (COs) are tasked with identifying, and facilitating the removal of material that breaches the Terrorism Act 2006. COs are extensively and repeatedly exposed to material deemed illegal and harmful (including but not restricted to graphic terrorist and non-terrorist material). However, there is little research on the impact of this work, or how COs manage and mitigate the risks of their roles. Semi-structured interviews reveal the adaptive coping mechanisms that promote good perceived health and wellbeing in CTIRU, as well as areas of concern and improvement.