Online Library

This study examines how racially and ethnically motivated extremists use online platforms for recruitment and mobilization through a thematic analysis of messaging about the nature and meaning of offline engagement in extremism found on Telegram. The analysis draws on text and image data from posts shared by administrators of Telegram channels associated with the white nationalist Active Club network. It shows that channel administrators portray offline engagement in Active Clubs as a shift away from modern culture; an introduction to a supportive community; a journey of self-improvement; an opportunity to create change; and a difficult path involving risk and challenge.

The gaming ecosystem is increasingly observed with the concern that it could pose a threat to public safety, and research accumulates evidence for blatant extremism in the surrounding online space of games. Currently, a connection between gaming and extremism can be established through identity related processes, e.g., gaming-related radicalization elements, distal to gaming itself, such as gaming communities and culture. However, this also raises the question of what the precise function of proximal gaming factors, such as gameplay, mechanics, stories, or game-play motivations, is in the relationship between gaming and extremism. This article aims to shed light on the relation of gaming and extremism by identifying individual profiles of videogame playing based on gameplay motivations and linking them to indications of radical attitudes (here: xenophobia and violence acceptance) as well as conspiracy beliefs that can be associated with extremist beliefs. Further, we include marginalization and anomie as mediators to gain comparative and fine-grained information about the sole impact of gaming motives on radical attitudes. Our findings indicate that while few motivational profiles exhibit weak yet direct connections to radical attitudes, others display the opposite pattern, suggesting a more complex relationship. Marginalization and anomie strongly predict most radical outcome variables and mediate the relationship in most cases, however sometimes negatively. We only found one complex motivational profile that substantially leans toward late-stage radical attitudes, while for instance, dominant social motives clearly inhibit radical outcomes. The current study thus deflates any straightforward perspective on the becoming of a ‘radical gamer’.

Patriotic Alternative (PA) is one of Britain’s largest fascist organizations. PA members have served prison sentences for terrorism and hate crime offenses and MPs have called for the organization to be proscribed under counter-terrorism legislation. This article employs a cultural and narrative criminological approach to analyze PA activists’ accounts of their political journeys into the far right. PA activists’ stories are simultaneously personal accounts of conversion and narratives of impending racial apocalypse. The study offers insights into how the internet and social media now facilitate pathways into the far right, and the emotional dimensions of contemporary far-right narratives and beliefs.

Although the misuse of new technologies by terrorist actors has been a major concern for some time, the capabilities offered by (and the availability of) a range of new and emerging technologies – including gaming platforms, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D-printed weapons – have heightened these fears even further. An analysis of how and why terrorists adopt new technologies suggests that it remains highly context specific, with the extent and speed of innovation affected by internal factors (for example strategic, structural and individual factors) and external factors, particularly relationships, resources and the effects of counter-terrorism. In combination, these factors can encourage or inhibit the adoption of new technologies by terrorist actors, resulting in significant variations in the adoption and use of key technologies of concern. Terrorist actors in or affecting Europe have adopted (or are beginning to adopt) many of these technologies. Social media platforms, small or micro platforms, terrorist-hosted websites and gaming or gaming-adjacent platforms are all playing critical roles in the radicalisation and recruitment process. Emerging technologies used in this process include the decentralised web, the dark web and, most recently, generative AI. Although many terrorist attacks in Europe use a low-tech modus operandi, technology plays a key role in their preparation, planning and subsequent promotion. Propaganda and instructional material – typically stored and shared online – play a prominent role in shaping attack targets and methodology. For example, the emergence of 3D-printed weapon usage by terrorist actors in Europe has been fuelled by instructional materials developed by an active online subculture. Other far-right online subcultures have also encouraged the live-streaming of attacks and sharing of manifestos online. Terrorist actors in Europe use a range of licit and illicit activities to fund their attacks and radicalisation and recruitment activities, some of which (but not all) require the use of new technologies. These include mobile payment systems, online exchanges and wallets, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer online funds transfers and the solicitation of donations on social media platforms. Simultaneously, terrorist actors outside Europe, notably ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)/Daesh, are increasingly encouraging donations via virtual assets, driving a rise in the presence of virtual assets in European terrorist financing arrests and prosecutions. Interviews with national, regional and international experts identified lessons learned and good practices when responding to terrorist misuse of new technologies. These include reducing the lag between terrorist exploitation of new technologies and counter-terrorism responses to it (through horizon scanning exercises and greater information sharing), the criticality of multistakeholder approaches, the importance of identifying and managing human rights-related risks, and the benefits of greater strategic clarity, which can lead to a focus on desired outcomes, rather than the steps required to reach them.

Social media platforms like Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram amplify rapid dissemination of negative sentiment, potentially causing harm and fostering extremist discourse. This paper addresses the NLP challenge of predicting sudden spikes in negative sentiment by fine-tuning multilingual transformer models. We present a structured pipeline emphasizing linguistic feature extraction and temporal modeling. Our experimental results, obtained from extensive Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram data, demonstrate improved forecasting accuracy over baseline methods. Ethical considerations and implications for deployment in social media moderation are thoroughly discussed. The system includes user-centric interactive features such as real-time filtering dashboards, customizable negativity thresholds, and forecasting analytics, providing actionable insights for preventative content moderation. Given its real-time deployment potential and cross-platform applicability, our system offers actionable insights for proactive content moderation.

This paper contributes to platform-comparative research through a case study of Twitter/X, Telegram, and Gettr in the context of German far-right social movements. It introduces the conceptual framework of platform opportunity structures to examine how platforms enable or constrain far-right mobilization. Using community analysis of sharing networks among the same pool of far-right social movement actors, the study explores how technological affordances, governance models, ownership and branding, and user bases and cultures shape platform-specific networking patterns. The findings reveal Telegram as a central platform for the most radical and active communities; Twitter as a site where anti-elite journalists and politicians are salient; and Gettr as a platform to connect to the U.S. far right. While anti-elite and COVID-related conspiracist figures exert influence on all platforms-particularly on Telegram, the prevalence of AfD politicians, pseudonymous amplifiers, and transnational ties to the U.S. far right – especially after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter – are emergent factors. As Twitter shifts toward ‘alternative’ platforms like Telegram and Gettr, offering minimal moderation and security and even ideological branding, this article adds to understanding how dynamic platform opportunity structures shape far-right mobilization online.