Blog

By Suraj Lakhani There has been, especially of late, increasing concern over the misuse of video-games and associated (adjacent) platforms (e.g. Steam, Discord, Twitch, DLive) for the purposes of extremism and violent extremism. Across the European Union (and for that matter globally), policymakers, law enforcement, academics, and counter-extremism practitioners have started to engage more on ...

By Katharine Gelber Hate speech is proliferating online and governments, regulators and social media companies are struggling to keep pace with their efforts to combat it. In July 2021, the racist abuse of Black English football players on Facebook and Twitter has brought the issue to the forefront and shown how slow and ineffective the tech ...

By The SecDev Group The devastating terrorist attack in Kabul by the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and the hasty departure of the US and coalition partners from Afghanistan is generating geopolitical tremors across Central and South Asia and beyond. And while Afghanistan is geographically distant from Bangladesh, the IS-K’s expansive digital footprint and the Taliban’s return to state power after ...

By Ross Frenett and Joost S  Video games have been stigmatised for many years, linked to many social ills including loneliness and terrorism. Not only is this often based on misguided prejudices and a misunderstanding of the gaming community in 2021, but this view risks robbing practitioners of one of the most exciting emerging methodologies ...

Welcome to Volume 8, Issue 3 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. MOST-READ VOX-Pol BLOG POSTS OF 2021 From September 2020 to July 2021, VOX-Pol published 48 Blog posts on the topics of online extremism and terrorism. The events of 6 January, 2021 at the US Capitol led to a big increase in traffic to VOX-Pol’s online ...

By Blyth Crawford and Florence Keen In the wake of a mass shooting in Plymouth, England, fresh questions are being asked about incel culture and whether crimes committed by its adherents should be considered terrorism. Jake Davison went on a shooting spree in his hometown, killing five people, including his mother, before taking his own life. As part ...

From September 2020 to July 2021, VOX-Pol published 48 Blog posts covering many aspects of online extremism and terrorism. The events of 6 January 2021 in the US Capitol building led to a big increase in traffic to the VOX-Pol online platforms, and total page views this year has increased 30% on the previous year. ...

Our Cyber Threats Research Centre colleagues couldn’t host an in-person TASM Conference this year, but instead organised a week of virtual events from 21 to 25 June 2021. This post is the third in a three-part series based on overviews of three of the virtual TASM panels . Read parts one and two. [Ed.] By Lucy Brown The Christchurch terrorist ...

Our Cyber Threats Research Centre colleagues couldn’t host an in-person TASM Conference this year, but instead organised a week of virtual events from 21 to 25 June 2021. This post is the second in a three-part series based on overviews of three of the virtual TASM panels . Read parts one and three. [Ed.] By Adam Whitter-Jones Many Internet and social ...

Our Cyber Threats Research Centre colleagues couldn’t host an in-person TASM Conference this year, but instead organised a week of virtual events from 21 to 25 June 2021. This post is the first in a three-part series based on overviews of three of the virtual TASM panels. Read parts two and three. [Ed.] By August Dichter How do we ...