Blog

Are Twitter bots driving the success of far right candidates?  While many are still trying to make sense of the election of Donald Trump and the surge in popularity of Marine Le Pen, evidence suggests that public perceptions of these candidates are being manipulated by far right social media activists. Social media can be a ...

By Lorand Bodo, M.A. & Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. As ISIS is rapidly losing its territory in Syria and Iraq they continue to win on the digital battlefield, maintaining a strong recruiting presence in the digital space[1]. As ISIS cadres inspire and even direct terrorist attacks on different continents, the West must realize that it is ...

Our latest report is launched today, May 03, 2017, available now in the VOX-Pol Online Library VOX-Pol has released its latest report in the VOX-Pol publication series, titled ‘Research Perspectives on Online Radicalisation: A Literature Review, 2006—2016’. Other reports in the series have included: Check the Web: Assessing the Ethics and Politics of Policing the ...

By Bharath Ganesh In early March, the Home Office published new counter-terrorism statistics that indicated a significant increase in the arrest of ‘white’ extremists. Tabloids in the UK, including The Daily Mail, ran triumphant headlines claiming a crackdown on far-right extremism. Unfortunately, the data released by the Home Office does not support any such assertion. The ...

By Joel Wing More than half of Mosul has fallen to Iraqi government forces and it is only a matter of time before the whole city is retaken. How is the Islamic State portraying this defeat? Has it changed its messaging since the start of the battle? Charlie Winter, a Senior Research Fellow at the ...

12-month fixed-term contract The VOX-Pol Research Fellowship Programme recruits promising researchers in the area of Violent Online Political Extremism, trains them in related research and analysis, and mentors them in delivering excellent completed projects. We are seeking innovative research proposals in the area of Violent Online Political Extremism. In particular, we encourage applications focusing on, ...

By Yannick Veilleux-Lepage The recent car-and-knife attack in London was just the latest in a string of high-profile incidents where assailants have used vehicles as deadly weapons. This type of attack has over the past few years become a feature of violent terrorism in the West and elsewhere – so where did it come from, and ...

This post is Part 3 of 3; Part I is HERE and Part II HERE. Also, a PDF combining all three posts is available HERE  Collectively, the results from the open source data analysis presented in Part I and the findings from the police data contained in Post II highlight the need to focus upon ...

 Update 05/04/2017 Yesterday, 4 April 2017, the Hungarian parliament passed the amendment to the Higher Education law that makes the operation of Central European University impossible or in permanent threat in Hungary. With all members of the ruling Fidesz party of Viktor Orban voting a mandatory “yes”, the law passed with 123 votes for and 38 votes ...

On 29 – 31 March VOX-Pol’s and CEU’s Kate Coyer will be participating in RightsCon Brussels 2017. On Thursday 30 March Dr. Coyer will participate in the GFMD meeting on Universal Do-No-Harm Principles and Best Practices for PVE/CVE and Counter- Propaganda. This meeting will be moderated by Principal Adviser to the OSCE Representative on Freedom ...