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It is an undeniable fact that the issue of terrorism, both as a theoretical
area of analysis and as a practical phenomenon, has grown exponentially
in significance over the past few decades. Indeed, terrorism has for some
time stopped being a term solely discussed in academic settings and in
strategic documents, but has recently been introduced in our everyday
lexicon in ways that are far more profound than in the past. Put more
simply, in understanding the extremely intricate nature of today’s international
affairs, the analysis of the concept and praxis of terrorism no
longer belongs to an obscure area of study, and has developed into an
urgent necessity, as a means of exploring how to respond to the phenomenon
in an appropriate manner.
As the illustrative examples of the rise of al-Qaeda and Daesh and
their expanded global landscape of terrorist attacks indicate, this dual
realisation that terrorism has unequivocally become a part of our reality
and that its analysis has become more urgent than ever is particularly
true of what has been widely termed as “Islamic fundamentalist terrorism”.
Due to the kaleidoscopic interests involved in it, the multifarious
dynamics that have been at play in the region from which it has primarily
originated, and the multiplicity of its actors, methods and cause, Islamic
terrorism has come to the fore of our attention in spectacular fashion,
necessitating consistent and rigorous analysis.
8 Daesh and the terrorist threat: from the Middle East to Europe
This book is focused precisely on this area. Covering a wide range of
pertinent aspects and referring to the causal links and history behind this
strand of terrorism in various countries of the world, this book intends to
provide an in-depth look at the rise and evolution of Islamic fundamentalist
terrorism. Divided into three parts, the first one focusing on the
Middle East and Africa region, the second one on the recruiting methods,
financing and propaganda instruments used by Islamic terrorist organisations,
and the last part on the evolution of the phenomenon in a select
few European countries, it attempts to answer some of the very basic
questions surrounding this very important topic.
What are the causes behind the phenomenon? What are its principal
methods of recruiting and financing? What are the primary challenges in
designing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to tackle it? Why
has it spread in the Middle East and Africa? What explains its presence in
Europe? These are all relevant questions into which this book attempts to
offer much needed insights, aimed to aid our shared understanding concerning
the past, present and future of Islamic terrorism. What is more,
and perhaps more crucially, drawing from the analysis, it also provides a
set of conclusions with a view to assisting the reader to better comprehend
what is needed in order to minimise the future ramifications of this
strand of terrorism and severely undermine its future dynamics.

A revealing and gripping investigation into how social media platforms police what we post online—and the large societal impact of these decisions. Most users want their Twitter feed, Facebook page, and YouTube comments to be free of harassment and porn. Whether faced with “fake news” or livestreamed violence, “content moderators”—who censor or promote user-posted content—have never been more important. This is especially true when the tools that social media platforms use to curb trolling, ban hate speech, and censor pornography can also silence the speech you need to hear.

In this revealing and nuanced exploration, award-winning sociologist and cultural observer Tarleton Gillespie provides an overview of current social media practices and explains the underlying rationales for how, when, and why these policies are enforced. In doing so, Gillespie highlights that content moderation receives too little public scrutiny even as it is shapes social norms and creates consequences for public discourse, cultural production, and the fabric of society. Based on interviews with content moderators, creators, and consumers, this accessible, timely book is a must-read for anyone who’s ever clicked “like” or “retweet.”

Using a unique dataset of 227 convicted UK-based terrorists, this report fills a large gap in the existing literature. Using descriptive statistics, we first outline the degree to which various online activities related to radicalisation were present within the sample. The results illustrate the variance in behaviours often attributed to ‘online radicalisation’. Second, we conducted a smallest-space analysis to illustrate two clusters of commonly co-occurring behaviours that delineate behaviours from those directly associated with attack planning. Third, we conduct a series of bivariate and multivariate analyses to question whether those who interact virtually with like-minded individuals or learn online, exhibit markedly different experiences (e.g. radicalisation, event preparation, attack outcomes) than those who do not.

This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on loneactor terrorism with the incorporation of closed-source data. The analyses presented investigate the antecedent behaviors of U.K.- based lone-actor terrorists leading up to their planning or conducting a terrorist event. The results suggest that prior to their attack or arrest the vast majority of lone-actor terrorists each demonstrated elements concerning (a) their grievance, (b) an escalation in their intent to act, (c) gaining capability—both psychologically and technically and (d) attack planning. The results also disaggregate our understanding of lone-actor terrorists in two ways. First, we compare the behaviors of the jihadist actors to those of the extreme-right. Second, we visualize Borum’s (2012) continuums of loneness, direction, and motivation. Collectively the results provide insight into the threat assessment and management of potential lone actors

Public interest and policy debates surrounding the role of the Internet in terrorist activities is increasing. Criminology has said very little on the matter. By using a unique data set of 223 convicted United Kingdom–based terrorists, this article focuses on how they used the Internet in the commission of their crimes. As most samples of terrorist offenders vary in terms of capabilities (lone-actor vs. group offenders) and criminal sophistication (improvised explosive devices vs. stabbings), we tested whether the affordances they sought from the Internet significantly differed. The results suggest that extreme-right-wing individuals, those who planned an attack (as opposed to merely providing material support), conducted a lethal attack, committed an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, committed an armed assault, acted within a cell, attempted to recruit others, and engaged in non-virtual network activities and non-virtual place interactions were significantly more likely to learn online compared with those who did not engage in these behaviours. Those undertaking unarmed assaults were significantly less likely to display online learning. The results also suggested that extreme-right-wing individuals who perpetrated an IED attack, associated with a wider network, attempted to recruit others, and engaged in non-virtual network activities and non-virtual place interactions were significantly more likely to communicate online with co-ideologues.

This article is a revised and updated version of the 2015 VOX-Pol report ‘What are the Roles of the Internet In Terrorism? Measuring Online Behaviors of Convicted UK Terrorists.’

Previous research on terrorist use of the Internet generally discusses the opportunities offered by the Internet to terrorist groups (Tsfati & Weimann, 2002; Weimann, 2006; Holt et al., 2015; Rudner, 2016). Such accounts implicitly view the interaction between the Internet and the user as uni-directional (i.e. exposure to Internet content may cause behaviour change). This lacks an acknowledgement that not every potential user will make use available opportunities, nor use these in the same way. The degree to which an individual makes use of an opportunity is modulated based upon their goals, plans, values, beliefs, and experiences (Norman, 1988). At present, there are only three data-driven studies examining how convicted terrorists have used the Internet: Von Behr et al., 2013, Gill et al., 2014, and Gill and Corner 2015. These studies shift the focus from the Internet as a potentially causal factor to how individuals use the Internet based upon their motivations, needs, expectations, and histories. They acknowledge, in other words, the way in which the interaction between Internet and user is a two-way person-situation interactive process in which the individual leads the way. Reported herein are two complementary pieces of research, one large scale and based on open source data and another smaller scale and based on closed sources, that build significantly upon the above described research.