Blog

By Emma Llansó On 5 December, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube announced their intent to begin collaborating on the removal of terrorist propaganda across their services. Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is deeply concerned that this joint project will create a precedent for cross-site censorship and will become a target for governments and private actors seeking to ...

By Tobias Gemmerli This article was originally published by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) on 10 November 2016. Our democratic culture can act as a safeguard against radicalisation, if we make space in the public debate for counter-cultural movements and radical political projects. In the confrontation with radicalism and political violence, democratic freedoms are often named the ...

On 8 December, VOX-Pol’s Programme Manager, Lisa McInerney, presented a selection of VOX-Pol research at the second meeting of the EU Internet Forum in Brussels. The meeting was convened by Mr. Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, and Mr. Julian King, Commissioner for the Security Union. Contributors included, in addition to ...

By Amarnath Amarasingam The Syrian war has been, for good and often for ill, an incubator for developing new tools and strategies for digital conflict. Whether any of these actors “win” the Syrian war, their digital strategies will likely be with us for a long time. ISIS and other jihadist groups have inspired tens of ...

VOX-Pol coordinating institution Dublin City University will be joining the University of Glasgow and Charles University, Prague, and the as a degree awarding partner for the EU-funded International Masters qualification in Security, Intelligence & Strategic Studies (IMSISS). Funded as part of the Erasmus+ initiative, this 24-month programme will offer a unique experience to students around ...

VOX-Pol’s Kate Coyer and Lisa McInerney are participating in a series of meetings of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on preventing terrorist use of the Internet at UN Headquarters in New York today and tomorrow. The CTC was established after the events of 11 September, 2001 to aid States’ abilities to fight terrorism. The CTC-hosted ...

This year’s wild presidential campaign was not only a test of two very different politicians but of humanity in general. Because social media is now far more entrenched than four years ago, we were effectively subjected to a giant, real-world experiment. The research question: how exactly do we treat one another when sensitive matters of ...

The International Studies Association (ISA) Junior Scholar Meeting is a facilitated meet and greet where established academics engage with early career scholars. These Junior Scholars range from current PhD students to recent Post-Doctorates. Prof Maura Conway, Professor of International Security in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University and Coordinator of the VOX-Pol ...

The United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted in July 2016 highlights the need to counter extremist narratives online. In the recent past, extremist content, usually content aiding terrorist activity has become a global concern. This post examines the methods adopted by state authorities and private entities to counter such online extremism. State Response The response to growing ...

VOX-Pol, in conjunction with two other EU FP7-funded projects, INFOCORE and MeCoDem, held a joint workshop themed “Social Media, Conflict and Democracy: Utopian Visions, Dystopian Futures and Pragmatic Policies” at the Press Club Brussels on Friday, November 18. Among the central questions addressed in the workshop entitled “Social Media, Conflict & Democracy: Utopian Visions, Dystopian Futures ...