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Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Stuart Macdonald and Andrew Staniforth The importance of tackling online terrorist propaganda is well-accepted, as is the important role of social media companies in responding to this challenge. In this short piece, we report some initial findings from a wider project on cooperation between social media ...

Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Helen Young and Geoff Boucher On 26 February this year, members of the extreme-Right group Atomwaffen Division in the United States were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. Alongside plans for the intimidation of journalists, including death threats, the group aimed to ...

Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By William Baldét You would be forgiven for thinking that the advent of Covid-19 and the accompanying lockdowns have led to the mass radicalization of our youth, consigned to cyberspace, and exposed to vast swathes of online terrorist propaganda. It’s true that cases of ‘self-radicalization’ in the ...

This article summarizes a recent study published in Terrorism and Political Violence. By Ryan Scrivens, Thomas W. Wojciechowski, and Richard Frank Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have paid close attention to the presence of terrorists and extremists online in recent years, with a particular emphasis on digital communities that facilitate extreme right-wing ideologies. This is largely ...

VOX-Pol expertise has been featured in the news since the storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021. The events, which led to five deaths, sparked a discussion about online deplatforming. VOX-Pol Fellows, such as JM Berger, Bharath Ganesh, Sam Jackson and Maura Conway have been quoted in The New York Times, VOX, ...

By Alex Newhouse Early in the morning of Jan. 11, the social media platform Parler went offline after Amazon withdrew the platform’s web hosting services. Parler sued Amazon in response. Amazon’s move followed Google and Apple’s banning the Parler app from their app stores. The tech companies cited the platform’s inability or unwillingness to block calls for and threats of ...

By Marc-André Argentino What is the cost of propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories? Democracy and public safety, to name just two things. The United States has received a stark lesson on how online propaganda and misinformation have an offline impact. For weeks, Donald Trump has falsely claimed the November presidential election was rigged and that’s ...

This article is the third of a three-part series. Part one is HERE and part two is HERE. [Ed.] By Anne Speckhard and Molly Ellenberg ICSVE has over the past two years, in partnership with Facebook, run over 125 campaigns in countries and languages all over the globe with good success in reaching the target audience ...

This article is the second of a three-part series. Part one is HERE and part three is HERE. [Ed.] By Anne Speckhard and Molly Ellenberg Research on Instagram in Regard to Terrorist Propagandizing and Recruitment Strategies Most research on the impact of Instagram focuses on the different communities that exist on Instagram. While some communities, such as ...

This article is part one of a three-part series. Part two is HERE and part three is HERE. [Ed.] By Anne Speckhard and Molly Ellenberg Identifying ISIS and Militant Jihadist Supporters on Instagram Identifying those supporting jihadist ideology and groups on Instagram is a relatively simple task. By searching on Islamic terms and names often associated ...