Blog
Blog
Book Review: Jihadi Audiovisuality and Its Entanglements
May 5, 2021Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Eurasia Review A new book looks at the use of audiovisual media by jihadi groups and their supporters as well as at how these contributions are being countered Recent attacks by jihadists in Kabul, Dresden, Paris, and Vienna have brought the problem of Islamist terror back into ...
Blog
Comparing the Online Posting Behaviors of Violent and Non-Violent Right-Wing Extremists
April 28, 2021This article summarises a recent study published in Terrorism and Political Violence. By Ryan Scrivens, Thomas W. Wojciechowski, Joshua D. Freilich, Steven M. Chermak, and Richard Frank Despite the ongoing need for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to identify and assess the online activities of violent extremists prior to their engagement in violence offline, little is ...
Blog
Automation in Online Content Moderation: In Search of Lost Legitimacy and the Risks of Censorship
April 21, 2021Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Charis Papaevangelou, Jiahong Huang, Lucia Mesquita, and Sara Creta At a recent workshop, JOLT Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) worked in multi-disciplinary teams to develop ideas for research projects that address a major issue surrounding media and technology. As the European Commission prepares to announce its much-anticipated ...
Blog
How Ireland Can Stop the Rise of the Far-right
April 14, 2021Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Ross Frenett We all watched in horror as rioters inspired by fringe far-right conspiracy theories occupied the US Capitol building in January. The societal radicalisation on full display has caused many to ask what we in Ireland can do to push back against the extremists in ...
News
Watch the VOX-Pol Webinar on ‘Terrorism Informatics’
April 7, 2021In March 2021, VOX-Pol published four Blog posts on the topic of ‘Terrorism Informatics’. The series covers A Framework for Researchers, Identifying Extremist Networks, Analysing Extremist Content, and Predicting Extremist Behaviour. The Blogs are written by Matti Pohjonen, a Researcher for a Finnish Academy-funded project on Digital Media Platforms and Social Accountability (MAPS) and VOX-Pol Fellow. Following the four ...
Blog
(Young) Women’s Usage of Social Media and Lessons for Preventing Violent Extremism
April 7, 2021Want to submit a blog post? Click here. This Blog post summarises a conclusion paper from the EU’s Radicalisation Awareness Network. By Jordy Krasenberg and Julia Handle The perspective on the role of (young) women in extremism has changed over the last years towards better understanding of how women radicalise, how they are recruited, and ...
Blog
Meet BreadTube, the YouTube Activists Trying to Beat the Far-right at Their Own Game
March 31, 2021Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Alexander Mitchell Lee YouTube has gained a reputation for facilitating far-right radicalisation and spreading antisocial ideas. However, in an interesting twist, the same subversive, comedic, satiric and ironic tactics used by far-right internet figures are now being countered by a group of leftwing YouTubers known as “BreadTube”. By making videos ...
Blog
‘Terrorism Informatics’ Part IV: Predicting Extremist Behaviour
March 24, 2021This is the fourth and final in a series of four original Blog posts; the first is HERE the second is HERE the third is HERE. [Ed.] By Matti Pohjonen The previous cluster of methods looked at in the blog post series included methods developed to extrapolate insight from the content produced online and on social ...
Blog
‘Terrorism Informatics’ Part III: Analysing Extremist Content
March 17, 2021This is the third in a series of four original Blog posts; the first is HERE and the second is HERE. [Ed.] By Matti Pohjonen The previous blog posts looked at the costs and benefits of using network analysis to identify extremist networks. It suggested that one challenge in such network analysis-based research approaches is ...
Blog
‘Terrorism Informatics’ Part II: Identifying Extremist Networks
March 10, 2021This is the second in a series of four original Blog posts; the first is HERE. [Ed.] By Matti Pohjonen The first blog post in this series explored how researchers interested in computational methods can assess the trade-off between the validity of the methods used and the potentially adverse social costs of using them in ...