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Why Extremist Innovation Happens First in Sexualised Digital Spaces 
February 18, 2026
By Mischa Gerrard Online extremism research tends to treat gendered AI-enabled harms – such as non-consensual sexual deepfakes and synthetic child sexual abuse material (CSAM) – as peripheral to core radicalisation mechanisms. Yet these harms represent more than isolated safety problems. Rather, they function as early-stage enabling infrastructures through which new techniques of coercion, evidentiary ...