Online Library

This study explores how terrorists utilise the Internet to learn bomb-making skills. Unlike previous studies, it does not focus on assessing the quality of online bomb recipes. Rather, it discusses the efforts being made by on-line jihadists to help others learn by providing so-called “e-learning courses.” As of today, such courses have few active participants yet they tend to attract large interest – indicating that there is a demand among Al-Qaeda’s online sympathisers for developing this concept further.

This book is concerned with the links or relationships between religious radicalism, violent extremism and the Internet.

VOX-Pol Blog post.

VOX-Pol Blog post.

The internet plays a contributory role in radicalisation, but is only one of a number of mechanisms currently deployed to win recruits to global jihad. Technical regulation of online content is difficult and may be counter-productive, driving forums deeper underground or alienating users. Tim Stevens argues that adopting a social approach that educates and empowers online communities could have more success.

This thesis examines how extremist far-right recruiters communicate online to support Australia’s countering violent extremism (CVE) early detection efforts. It argues that current strategies—while sometimes effective—overlook online spaces as primary recruitment sites, focus too heavily on detecting already-radicalised individuals, and rely on oversimplified root-cause models. Further, it contends that detection is hindered by representational biases portraying the far right as non-terrorist and unified, leaving many groups free to operate. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining media logic with Critical Terrorism and Security Studies, the research develops an original “Extremism Typology,” blending Social Identity Theory and Identity Theory to analyse how social, cultural, and collective identities shape recruitment discourse. Applying multimodal discourse analysis to far-right websites, it conceptualises recruiters as “lighthouses” guiding audiences through a “digital fog” of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. It concludes that far-right groups are not unified and that effective early detection must treat them as distinct entities while recognising online environments as central to recruitment.