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

Web 3.0: The Decentralised Web Promises to Make the Internet Free Again

One of our Top 4 Blog posts of 2019 was Loránd Bodó’s Decentralised Terrorism: The Next Big Step for the So-Called Islamic State (IS)? Today’s post presents the pros and cons of what’s sometimes called ‘Web 3.0.’ [Ed.] By Edina Harbinja and Vasileios Karagiannopoulos Have you recently considered deleting your Facebook account, boycotting Amazon or

Ansar al-Haqq Trial: Does Media Jihad Account for ‘Half of the Battle’?

By Laurence Bindner This post was originally published on our Blog in French in January 2019. It was cross-posted with permission from Ultima Ratio, IFRI’s security and defence Blog. This is its first time appearing in English. [Ed.] The appeal trial of the administrators of the Ansar al-Haqq forum got under way at the Paris Regional

#Dundalk: Breaking News and the Far Right

By Niamn Kirk, Eugenia Siapera, Gavan Titley Since ‘news tickers’ first began to crawl along the bottom of our television screens, ‘breaking news’ has become a key element in how audiences receive the news, and think about what counts as news. In a context where news stories now unfold rapidly across multiple media platforms, and an

Assessing Europol’s Operation Against ISIS’ Propaganda: Approach and Impact

By Laurence Bindner and Raphael Gluck On April 27 2018, a Europol press release announced that new action was underway to disrupt ISIS’[1] ability to spread its propaganda online. The press release referred to an operation that commenced two days earlier, which was led by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office and coordinated with six European countries

This Isn’t Helter Skelter: Why the Internet Alone Can’t be Blamed for Radicalisation

By Daniel Baldino & Kosta Lucas The Internet’s precise role in the process of radicalisation remains vexing. You can lead a person to a bomb-making manual, but you can’t make them use it. Radicalisation is a social process. It refers to a means by which an individual or group embraces an extreme ideology and rejects

Counter-Terrorism Police Are Now Training with Virtual Terrorists

By Jonathan Saunders What if you could save an airport from terrorists, escape insurgents in South Sudan, and rescue civilians in an underground station all in one morning? With modern technology, the ability to recreate these scenarios within virtual and augmented reality is here, and we’re using it to help train counter-terrorism officers and aid workers.

Identifying Radical Content Online

By Ryan Scrivens and Garth Davies Violent extremists and those who subscribe to radical beliefs have left their digital footprints online since the inception of the World Wide Web. Notable examples include Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right terrorist convicted of killing 77 people in 2011, who was a registered member of a white supremacy web forum and had ties

VOX-Pol Newsletter 4(3) August 2017

Welcome to Vol. 4 Iss. 3 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. If you have colleagues or friends who may be interested in the content of our newsletter, or any events or research carried out by VOX-Pol, please forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe via our website. Follow us on Twitter @VOX_Pol for live updates and releases.

New Book Terrorists’ Use of the Internet by VOX-Pol and The Cyberterrorism Project

Our new edited volume Terrorists’ Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response was published on 10 June. The book presents revised versions of a selection of papers delivered at the jointly VOX-Pol and Cyberterrorism Project-organised NATO Advanced Research Workshop  on ‘Terrorists’ Use of the Internet’ held at Dublin City University, Ireland in June 2016. A