Should misogyny be treated as a form of extremism?

By Stephanie Wescott, Monash University and Steven Roberts, Monash University The UK government has recently announced a review into their counter-terrorism strategy, focussing on responses to “extremist ideologies”. This announcement named misogyny as one of its extremist ideological trends of interest. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: For too long, governments have failed to address the

Who Is Accused ISIS Propagandist Mohammed Khalifa? Part I

This is part one of a two-part series. Read part II here [Ed.]. By Anne Speckhard And Molly Ellenberg Mohammed Khalifa, otherwise known as Abu Ridwan al-Kanadi, is a Canadian citizen now facing federal prosecution in the United States for his participation in ISIS, particularly for his role in the terrorist group’s media department. The New York

The European Union Moves to Fight Terrorist Content Online

By The Soufan Centre On June 7, 2021, the European Union (EU) adopted new rules, known as the Terrorist Content Online Regulation (2021/784), targeting the online dissemination of terrorist content. The new rules are the most aggressive effort to date by the EU to compel hosting service providers to remove terrorist content. There is little doubt that

Lunch Briefing Series 2019 hosted by VOX-Pol & EC-REP

This Autumn, the VOX-Pol Network of Excellence invites you to a series of Lunchtime Briefing Seminars, each exploring a different aspect of Violent Online Political Extremism. This is the third lunch briefing series following on from events in 2015 and 2016. The 2019 Lunch Briefing Series takes place in October and November, and is a joint

VOX-Pol Newsletter 6(2) May 2019

Welcome to Volume 6 Issue 2 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. If you have colleagues or friends who may be interested in the content of our newsletter, or in any VOX-Pol events and research, please forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe via our website. Follow us on Twitter @VOX_Pol for live updates and releases. Yours Sincerely, The

VOX-Pol Newsletter 6(1) February 2019

Welcome to Volume 6 Issue 1 of the VOX-Pol Newsletter. The VOX-Pol Network of Excellence for Research in Violent Online Political Extremism reached five years in December 2018; a huge thanks to everyone who has contributed along the way. The project has been given a one-year extension to December 2019 by the European Commission. In

Media Coverage of New Report ‘The Alt-Right Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Audience for Alt-Right Content on Twitter’

The Alt-Right Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Audience for Alt-Right Content on Twitter gained significant attention in the media upon its release. The report was written by VOX-Pol fellow, JM Berger, and has been featured in several publications. Below are some examples: ‘The alt-right loves YouTube’ VOX(15 October 2018) Click here to read more. ‘Support

Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter-Narratives – Part II: Ethical Considerations in Fighting ISIS Online

This is the second in a two-part series; part one is HERE. By Anne Speckhard & Ardian Shajkovci Last week’s Blog post described ICVSE’s efforts directing counter narratives into the ISIS-dominated Internet space. This post discusses the ethics of attempting such interventions. As in all our work, our research ethics for Internet interventions with ISIS