Online Library

Current literature on online criminal and deviant groups recognises the role of online forums in the transfer of knowledge and socialisation of members, but current research lacks insight on the evolution and convergence of these groups. One area of concerns is how different aspects of these ideologies, most notably misogyny, anti-semitism and racism, are shared and developed between communities making up the manosphere and those dedicated to far-right themes. Current research has found overlaps in memberships across these two online groups, with growing evidence showing members’ linkage to online harassment and offline violent incidents (Farrell et al., ; Regehr,). To develop appropriate interventions to prevent such violent events, this research attempts to elucidate the different elements of the ideologies expressed in online communities known collectively as the “manosphere”, by analysing the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre’s ExtremeBB dataset. This database includes approximately 46 million posts made by more than 315 thousand registered active members on 12 different online extremist forums promoting misogyny and far-right extremism. To understand the interaction between far-right extremism and misogyny, we perform a qualitative analysis of a selection of posts already categorised by topic. Preliminary analyses show support for the following aspects: (a) similarities in radicalisation mechanisms, and (b) overlaps in the discourse on race and gender. These similarities provide potential gateways for previously isolated members to venture beyond their current association, suggesting the further adoption of extreme ideologies. Such a process, known as radicalisation, is highly correlated with extremism and terrorism (Borum, ; McCauley & Moskalenko,). Findings from this research will allow for more precise interventions.

This paper attempts to fill the gap in research and contribute to the academic debate on the online magazines of Daesh. Its primary objective is to identify and understand propaganda devices, which were exploited by the editors of “Dabiq” to influence its readers. In order to do this, the study utilized a classic framework of propaganda devices elaborated by the American Institute for Propaganda Analysis, which consists of seven methods: name-calling, glittering generalities, transfer, testimonial, card-stacking, plain folks, and bandwagon.

Titre complet : Le « jihad 2.0 » ? : Discours, mythes et réalité(s) autour du rôle des espaces numériques dans les trajectoires jihadistes contemporaines.

VOX-Pol Blog post.

Social media platforms, such as Instagram, are regularly misused for spreading covert (Islamic) extremist propaganda. Affect and emotion are central tools used in extremist propaganda, but there is little research into the combined employment of different social media elements, such as hashtags, visuals, and texts, in the context of propaganda. This study contributes to closing this gap. Using the German group Generation Islam as a case study, we examined the group’s Instagram activity (N = 1,187 posts) over the course of 2 years. To reflect the platform users’ logic, we (a) examined affect in hashtag networks in which users can come across propagandistic content, (b) employed deep learning to examine the emotional valence transmitted in the visuals, and (c) used automated linguistic analysis to describe collective action cues contained within the texts. The results are novel, as they provide nuanced insights into extremist propaganda’s employment of affect and emotions across Instagram’s affordances.