This paper describes and discusses the process of secret communication known as steganography. The argument advanced here is that terrorists are unlikely to be employing digital steganography to facilitate secret intra-group communication as has been claimed. This is because terrorist use of digital steganography is both technically and operationally implausible. The position adopted in this
Search Results for: advanced
Network Technologies for Networked Terrorists: Assessing the Value of Information and Communication Technologies to Modern Terrorist Organizations
This report analyzes terrorist groups’ use of advanced information and communication technologies in efforts to plan, coordinate, and command their operations. It is one component of a larger study that examines terrorists’ use of technology, a critical arena in the war against terrorism. The goal of the investigation reported here is to identify which network
Main Findings of GIFCT Tech Trials: Combining Behavioural Signals to Surface Terrorist and Violent Extremist Incidents Online
By Tom Thorley & Erin Saltman This article summarises a recent paper published in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism that forms part of a special issue on the practicalities and complexities of (regulating) online terrorist content moderation. The special issue contains papers that were presented at Swansea University’s Terrorism and Social Media Conference 2022. Technical
Weeda Mehran
Weeda Mehran, PhD (Cambridge), MSc (Oxford) is a faculty member at the Department of Politics & Co-director of the Centre for Advanced International Studies (CAIS) at the University of Exeter. Dr Mehran has formerly worked at the Global Studies Institute, Georgia State University, McGill University and Dublin City University (as aVox-POL visiting scholar). She has
J.M. Berger
J.M. Berger is a consultant and author working on a suite of related issues that include extremism, misinformation, propaganda, advanced social media analysis, and technology sector content policies. A research fellow with VOX-Pol and a postgraduate research student at Swansea University’s School of Law, where he studies extremist ideologies, he is the author of four
The parallel economy: the rightwing movement creating a safe haven for deplatformed conservative influencers
By Jing Zeng, Utrecht University and Daniela Mahl, University of Zurich The last few years have seen the west swept by political polarisation, much of which has played out online. Debates around race, gender and freedom of speech have splintered democracies, spread conspiracy theories and sparked a series of culture wars. One byproduct of this
Plotters: The UK Terrorists Who Failed – A Book Review
A Book Review by Joe Whittaker It is often said that online terrorism research has a data problem. While there is a sizable empirical literature into the “supply” of extremist content, such as propaganda videos, social media analyses, or jihadist magazines, we still know very little about how actual terrorists act. This data problem is,
Hate in the Homeland: Reorienting Our Analytic Perspective on Extremism – A Book Review
A Book Review by Ashley Mattheis Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right takes an innovative line of approach to exploring processes of radicalization through an analysis of spaces and places where interaction and engagement with extremism occur. This may seem a small shift but represents a major perspectival refocusing in both practical
My Wish to be a #Tradwife: An Introduction to #tradwife Memes on Whisper
By Ninian Frenguelli and Amy-Louise Watkin Research into online extremist behaviour is centred around Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, 4chan, Telegram, and Gab. Studies focusing on platforms where image sharing is the purpose (rather than text or video sharing) are generally underrepresented in the literature on online extremist content. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube account for 55%, 35% and 8.7% of the studies
Using Online Data in Terrorism Research
by Stuart Macdonald, Elizabeth Pearson, Ryan Scrivens, and Joe Whittaker This article summarises a recent paper published in Lara Frumkin, John Morrison, and Andrew Silke’s A Research Agenda for Terrorism Studies (Elgar). Historically one of the greatest challenges for the study of extreme or terrorist groups was access. Today, online spaces offer researchers a level