counter terrorism

By Lorand Bodo In recent years, governments and companies have had to respond to the phenomenon of terrorists and other violent extremists using the Internet, especially social media platforms, to propagate their messages and as a tool for radicalisation. For example, the UK government recently proposed to tighten the law concerning the viewing of violent ...

This post is Part 2 of 3; Part I is HERE. Background Last week’s post—part I of three in this series—presented findings on convicted UK terrorists’ online behaviours from a large scale analysis based on open source data. Follow-up research on the antecedent behaviours, including online activities, of UK-based lone-actor terrorists leading up to their ...

This Blog post is a product of the ESRC-funded Youth Extremisms Research Seminar Series. By Prof. Hilary Pilkington Following significant electoral successes for populist radical right parties and several instances of extraordinary extremist violence, perpetrated by both jihadist and extreme right actors, the attention of scholars, journalists and politicians has understandably focussed upon extremist and radical growth ...

The Radicalisation Awareness Network’s (RAN) Communications & Narratives’ Working Group meeting on 13 and 14 February, 2017 in Brussels focused on how to measure the impact of an online counter or alternative narrative message; the following post is adapted from the ex-ante paper circulated prior to the meeting, which drew from the Institute for Strategic ...

By Javier Lesaca The so-called Islamic State (ISIS) has emerged in less than two years as one of the major security challenges for the global community. At the same time, this terrorist group has become one of the most important phenomena in digital public communication since the beginning of the century. In fact, the analysis of ...

Researchers from VOX-Pol Coordinator institution Dublin City University made a series of contributions at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, which took place from 16 – 19 March 2016. ISA (established in 1959) is the world’s largest academic organisation dedicated to the study of international affairs. Its annual convention attracts 5,000+ participants ...

By Scott Craig and Emma Llansó The UK government has published a new counter-extremism strategy outlining the steps it intends to take to counter extremist ideologies in British society. In an expansion of earlier efforts designed to prevent people being “drawn into terrorism,” the government now intends to actively challenge non-violent extremism both online and ...

VOX-Pol’s Dr. Kate Coyer, also Director of the Center for Media and Communication Studies at Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary participated in the “Media Freedom and Responsibilities in the Context of Counter-Terrorism Policies” workshop organised by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Bucharest, Romania from 7- 8 October 2015. The workshop focussed ...