Online radicalisation

By Andrew Whiting Having begun their inquiries in May 2025, the Home Affairs Select Committee last month published their report into combatting new forms of extremism. The report is a welcome addition to the discussion with several important recommendations. The range of expertise the committee engaged with has helped give it good coverage across a range of ...

Welcome to Volume 13, Issue 4 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT Political Theology and the Digital Caliphate: Jihadism in the Age of Globalisation11 June 2026, 10:00-17:00Avenue Campus (room: TBC),University of Southampton This workshop invites contributions that examine the relationship between globalisation and the revival of the caliphate in contemporary Islamist thought and activism. Moving ...

Welcome to Volume 13, Issue 3 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. The Only Way is Ethics: Next Gen Networks Unite The University of Southampton’s Centre for Criminology in the Digital Age is excited to convene an event dedicated to supporting the next generation of researchers working at the cutting edge of sensitive, ethically complex research. This ...

Welcome to Volume 13, Issue 2 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. A list of confirmed speakers and panels for this year’s TASM conference is now available! Co-organised by CYTREC and VOX-Pol, TASM 2026 will feature more than 70 presentations, delivered by speakers from around the world, as well as a wide variety of different panels, stakeholder-led workshops and the TASM sandpit. ...

By Alessandro Bolpagni, Eleonora Ristuccia, and Grazia Ludovica Giardini More than ten years ago, Halummu launched an online campaign entitled “Supporting Ribat and Jihad” to urge IS munasirin to spread IS propaganda material “to as many platforms and accounts as possible”, underlying that the “ongoing war between the camp of kufr and the camp of ...

By Gina Vale In December 2021, terrorism charges against a 14-year-old British girl were dropped—not due to lack of engagement with extremist networks, but on account of the power dynamics of her digital relationships therein. The Home Office Single Competent Authority (SCA) determined that she was a victim of modern slavery in the UK for ...

By Mohamed Elgayar Introduction With over 100 million YouTube views on its most recent trailer, the latest instalment of the Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto Series, GTA VI, is quickly becoming the most anticipated title of 2026. The franchise has thrived because it provides a rare opportunity to explore social behaviours without real-world consequences. The ...

By Anna Kruglova and Bruce White The digital landscape demands evolving strategies against violent extremism and terrorism online. Traditional counter-measures by professional institutions often struggle to keep pace with the sophisticated propaganda and disinformation disseminated by extremist groups and hostile actors. Their ability to adapt quickly necessitates democratizing counter-efforts, empowering communities to safeguard online spaces. ...

By Dimitrios Kalantzis Less than 24 hours after John Earnest opened fire at a San Diego-area synagogue killing one person and injuring three others, the focus of the developing story shifted to his digital life. News outlets reported that Earnest “posted an anti-Jewish screed online about an hour before the attack” and “praised the suspects ...

By Suzanne Mos The Internet is a good place to get a sense of what topics certain groups or movements deem important. In this Blog post, I present the findings of comparative mixed methods research addressing the question ‘How does the use of Twitter by far-right political parties differ from right-wing extremist movements in terms ...