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The purpose of this study is to synthesize the literature relating to radicalization on social media, a space with enhanced concerns about nurturing propaganda and conspiracies for violent extremism. Through the systematic review of 82 peer-reviewed studies related to radicalization through social media published in scholarly journals, this paper evidence the growth of robust studies on the usage of social media for radicalization. Nonetheless, the current work hardly discusses the radicalization issues through social media and reveals an increasing trend of publication from 2017 with a major contribution from the USA, Germany, and England. The thematic analysis indicated determinants of radicalization and the mitigation measures for the deradicalization of content on social media. However, the knowledge gap persists to understand the effects of radicalization in the different regional settings and further framing of content specific to target populations. Individuals must have the critical social media literacy to counteract the rising radicalization through social media. Individual users’ political interests are key factors in their radicalization such as citizens losing faith in the government and political parties. Active rather than passive searchers of violent radical material are more likely to engage in political violence. The results indicate that further research using experimental design, grounded theory, and pilot interventions may be relevant to suggest a solution to mitigate radicalization on social media.

VOX-Pol Blog Post.

Media foundations connected to jihadi groups and jihad-supporting organizations, which once released their productions – videos, statements, and more – over jihadi forums, have turned to social media websites, mainly Facebook and Twitter, because of these forums’ inability to provide reliable means for communication, interaction, and publication due to constant and often lengthy disruption of their online presence. This report discusses official and unofficial jihadi media foundations’ presence on Facebook and Twitter, and identifies the foundations’ accounts and provide background information regarding their affiliation and activities.

This article examines two cases in which political groups sought to harness the new media ecology to mobilise and justify acts of violence to public audiences and to supporters. In each case, a woman’s suffering is presented and instrumentalised. However, the new media ecology offers an increasingly irregular economy of media modulation: digital footage may emerge today, in a year or never, and it may emerge anywhere to anyone. The cases analysed here allow for reflection on the tension between contingency and intentionality as that irregular economy brings uncertainty for the political actors involved. Dua Khalil Aswad, an Iraqi teenager of the Yazidi faith, was stoned to death by a Yazidi mob consisting of tens of men, mostly her relatives. One Yazidi uploaded a film of the killing. This led to violent reprisals against the Yazidis. Camilia Shehata is a young Coptic Egyptian who, after allegedly converting to Islam, was returned to her church with the help of Egyptian security forces and kept in hiding despite public protests. Extremists in Iraq and Egypt seized on the Shehata case to justify violence against Christians. In both instances, the irregular emergence of digital content and its remediation through these media ecologies enabled distributed agency in ways that empowered and confounded states, terrorists and citizens.

Demystifying the Abu Mansur Saga