Online extremism

Michelle Lynn Kahn, University of Richmond How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and ’90s – and it hasn’t gone away. Decades before artificial intelligence, Telegram and white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ livestreams, far-right ...

By Antara Chakraborthy On the 19th of December 2024, Atul Subhash, a 28-year-old techie from Bangalore, India, recorded an 80-minute video blaming his wife, feminism, and the Indian court system, before ending his life. Within hours, his video and suicide note were widely circulated by India’s men’s rights organisations in India. Subash was hailed as ...

Kristy Campion, Charles Sturt University and Emma Colvin, Charles Sturt University Vulnerable young Australians are being targeted and recruited into extremist organisations. Sometimes, adult recruiters use grooming and coercion. Young people are seen as easy targets because they are looking for a place to belong, rather than holding deep-seated ideological beliefs. Last week, Australia’s Independent ...

Karmvir K. Padda, University of Waterloo Two years have passed since a 24-year-old former student walked into a gender studies classroom at the University of Waterloo and stabbed the professor and two students. The attack left the campus shaken and sparked national outrage. Many saw the attack as a shocking but isolated act of violence. ...

By Stuart Macdonald In a recent article, co-authored with Jonathan Hall KC, I made the argument that it is possible to disseminate terrorist propaganda to the public in (what may be regarded by some as) private online spaces. Here, I outline this argument and consider its relevance to the EU’s Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation. ...

By Bo Min Keum and Richard Frank Background Research suggests that participating in online forums give Incels a sense of belonging and validation for their shared grievances and struggles. Therefore, posing the question; why would they stop posting, and what do they say before they do? Given the emerging research on Incel posting trajectories, and ...

By Shaswati Das On 10 May, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire, after finding themselves at the precipice of yet another all-out war. Had the war unfolded, it would have been the fifth war between both nuclear-armed nations, in the last eight decades. Underpinning India’s retaliatory action is the act of one group – ...

By Katy Vaughan Ofcom, as the UK’s independent regulator of ‘Online Safety’ is taking a phased approach to the implementation of the Online Safety Act, which passed into law in October 2023. In December 2024 Ofcom published its statement on the progress of the first phase of implementation which focuses on ‘illegal harms’, including the ...

By Joe Whittaker, Elizabeth Pearson, Ashley A. Mattheis, Till Baaken, Sara Zeiger, Farangiz Atamuradova, & Maura Conway There are two words that will strike fear into the hearts of many researchers of online deviance: “Ethics Committee.” Attend a conference or workshop, it is commonplace to have discussions about bureaucratic nightmares which stifle the ability of ...

By Amelia Cho Introduction The rapid advancement of digital communication technologies has intensified the debate between national security and user privacy. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is widely regarded as a fundamental tool for protecting digital communications, yet it is also exploited by terrorist organisations to evade surveillance. This blog examines the challenges posed by E2EE in ...