By Dr Elizabeth Pearson Terrorist propaganda videos, extremist narratives, child sexual exploitation images. These are amongst the materials that content moderators across social media platforms deal with on a daily basis. They’re also materials that academic researchers engage with in order to better understand particular forms of online crime. Over the past decade, the emotional
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Rethinking Social Media and Extremism: A Book Review
Book Review by Seán Looney “Put starkly: Facebook livestreamed this massacre. While the terrorist was cast as a ‘lone gunman’ he was anything but alone.” The introduction to Editors Shirley Leitch and Paul Pickering’s book lays out the global impact of the Christchurch Attack succinctly. The book could be more accurately described as ‘Rethinking Social
Online Extremist Ecosystems? Reflections from a Critical Cross-Disciplinary Discussion
This article summarizes a panel from the Terrorism and Social Media Conference 2022 hosted by Swansea University. By Mr Jade Hutchinson State of play Networks of organisms and their relationship with different environments are difficult to theorize. Natural sciences are abundant in terms and concepts to articulate the emergent complexity of evolving networks, their processes
Online Terrorism Studies: Analysis of the Literature
This article summarizes the recent research note that examines the literature on online terrorism studies, published by Ali Unlu and Kamil Yilmaz. By Kamil Yilmaz There has been a steady increase in the number of scientific productions on terrorism during the last two decades. One specific area of research that gained traction is online radicalization
How Far-Right Online Spaces Use Mainstream Media To Spread Their Ideology
This article summarizes the recent research report Mainstream media use in far-right online ecosystems, published by Mario Peucker, Thomas J. Fisher and Jacob Davey (ISD). A more in-depth analysis was also published in the journal Media , Culture & Society. By Mario Peucker Mistrust in the media is widespread among Australians, but this view becomes particularly antagonistic
Right-Wing Extremists’ Use of the Internet: Emerging Trends in the Empirical Literature
This article summarizes a recent paper published in Barbara Perry, Jeff Gruenwald, and Ryan Scrivens’ ‘Right-Wing Extremism in Canada and the United States’ (Palgrave). By Ryan Scrivens, Tiana Gaudette, Maura Conway, and Thomas J. Holt Close attention by journalists and policymakers to the widespread use of the Internet by violent Western (i.e., American, Canadian, Australian,
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Meet the individuals that make up our VOX-Pol network, and find out more about their work and research using the links below. Leadership Team Coordinator: Stuart Macdonald Stephane Baele John Battersby Jonathan Collins Maura Conway Cori E. Dauber Julian Droogan Suraj Lakhani Anthony F. Lemieux Ayse D. Lokmanoglu Seán Looney Brigitte Naderer Nick Nelson Elizabeth
Using Twitter as a Data Source: An Overview of Social Media Research Tools (2021)
By Wasim Ahmed When I wrote the original version of this post back in 2015, and the revised versions in 2017 and 2019, I wasn’t sure how long Twitter would provide access to its data. This was because after a string of public scandals other platforms such as Facebook had been closing or limiting access. Fast-forward to 2021, and something
Christchurch’s Legacy of Fighting Violent Extremism Online Must Go Further – Deep into the Dark Web
By Dr. Joe Burton It didn’t take long for a terrorist to show how hard it is to prevent violent extremist content being shared online. Within six months of the attacks at two Christchurch mosques on March 15 last year, which were live streamed on Facebook, a far-right terrorist’s attack at a German synagogue was
Using Twitter as a Data Source: An Overview of Social Media Research Tools (2019)
By Wasim Ahmed This post builds upon the 2015, and 2017 editions of this post, captures key trends and events which are shaping social media research for social scientists and provides a collection of research methods and tools for the analysis of social media data. Since the 2017 edition of this blog post, I have