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The so-called Islamic State (IS) has always had a strong online presence. The purpose of most IS propaganda is to shape perceptions and polarise the support of their audience, but there are also other forms of communication from the group and its supporters. In this paper, we present an analysis of the content from two IS-aligned media outlet on Telegram that specialize in cybersecurity, privacy, and encrypted communications to assist IS supporters with security awareness. We have analyzed content for a period of 60 days (from February 9th to April 9th 2022) on the first media and 180 days (from July 15th 2024 to Jnuary 15th 2025) on the second media and categorized the type of content into four different categories. Most of the communication in the channel is about cyber security awareness and tools for secure communication. However, almost 30% of the conversations are about how to secure the community, avoid detection and maintain a presence online.

Mobilization is central to the emergence, survival and success of armed groups challenging the state, and has lately expanded to new arenas with the rise of social media. Using a new dataset of rebel group Twitter use, we examined the topics contained in rebel group social media communications to understand how different messaging strategies impact civilian engagement with rebel messages. Rather than benefiting solely from direct calls to action, we found that rebel groups also increased civilian engagement through indirect messages of self-promotion. While direct appeals received more engagement than indirect appeals, their effects were tempered by audience fatigue when relied on too heavily. We additionally found that including images further enhanced the impact of a mobilizing message. These findings expanded our understanding of rebel communications and mobilization, with important implications for combating the use of social media as a recruitment tool for violent extremism.

This paper explores the relationship of transphobia and other forms of harassment found across the events of the Gamergate hate movement through the development of an interactive social network analysis. With the social network being derived from hundreds of events tagged by hand, special consideration is given to the positionality and biases of its authors and how they affected this specific interpretation of Gamergate events. Informed largely by the transgender perspective of its first author, this paper draws particular conclusions around the propagation of transphobia in online hate movements, such as its intersectionality with other ideological cornerstones of Gamergate.

Cet article explore la relation entre la transphobie et d’autres formes de harcèlement observées lors des événements du mouvement de haine Gamergate à travers le développement d’une analyse de réseau social interactive. Avec le réseau social dérivé de centaines d’événements étiquetés à la main, une attention particulière est accordée à la position et aux biais de ses auteurs et à la manière dont ils ont influencé cette interprétation spécifique des événements de Gamergate. Principalement informé par la perspective transgenre de son premier auteur, cet article tire des conclusions particulières sur la propagation de la transphobie dans les mouvements de haine en ligne, comme son intersectionnalité avec d’autres piliers idéologiques de Gamergate.

The Alt-Right is a neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in extensive disinformation campaigns. Using social media data mining, this study develops a deeper understanding of such targeted disinformation campaigns and the ways they spread. It also adds to the available literature on the endogenous and exogenous influences within the US far right, as well as motivating factors that drive disinformation campaigns, such as geopolitical strategy. This study is to be taken as a preliminary analysis to indicate future methods and follow-on research that will help develop an integrated approach to understanding the strategies and associations of the modern fascist movement.

The current National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin released by the Department of Homeland Security places the United States in a heightened threat environment due to “threat actors” becoming mobilized by “personal grievances, reactions to current events, and adherence to violent extremist ideologies…” (Summary of the Terrorism Threat to the United States, 2022). Online threats, extremism, and radicalization – particularly through video game platforms and applications – are an increasing threat. There is growing concern that connectivity provided by gaming can provide fertile ground for a range of potentially criminal activity and radicalization. Extremist organizations are leveraging the “gamification” of extremism to both radicalize new individuals and virtually bringing already radicalized individuals together, leading to an increased spread of extremist ideology worldwide. The gamification of extremism poses clear national security threats for both the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community (IC), particularly in terms of its counterintelligence implications. In order to address this concern, the DoD and IC can develop policies for moderating gaming and gaming app platforms for federal employees and service members, optimize the security clearance process to account for online gaming relationships, and modify current counterintelligence and cybersecurity training for federal employees and service members, and developing psychological interventions for individuals become radicalized.

At a time when ISIS exploits social media to spread its ideology and gain new recruits, Monika Bickert, the head of global policy management at Facebook, explains how her team removes content that promotes violence and terrorism. Bickert, a former federal prosecutor, describes Facebook’s efforts to use “counter-speech” to fight hateful and extremist ideologies.