News
Research Finds Social Media Disruption Impacting on Islamic State Propaganda
August 15, 2017
In one 24-hour period, 65% of Twitter accounts tweeting out-links to IS propaganda were suspended within 17 hours Focus of online disruption on IS allows other jihadi groups to outpace them on social media VOX-Pol researchers from Dublin City University, together with colleagues from the University of Sussex, have found that the social media platform, ...
Blog
Virtual Doorstep: Journalists, Social Media and the Victims of Tragedy
June 28, 2017
By Glenda Cooper Some of the most powerful stories about the atrocity in recent Manchester have been told online: whether pictures of the missing, the videos taken in the aftermath or the hashtags such as #roomformanchester or #acityunited showing the city’s resilience. But there are those who have also felt under pressure from journalists. Twitter ...
News
VOX-Pol Coordinator Gives Keynote Address at Dublin’s IIEA
June 2, 2017
On 15 May 2017 VOX-Pol’s Coordinator, DCU’s Prof. Maura Conway, gave a keynote address at Dublin’s Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), “Ireland’s leading think tank on European and International affairs.” In her address, Prof. Conway detailed the development of IS’s online strategy from 2014 to the present, with a particular focus on online-offline ...
Blog
Far Right Twitter Bots and Electoral Politics
May 10, 2017
Are Twitter bots driving the success of far right candidates?  While many are still trying to make sense of the election of Donald Trump and the surge in popularity of Marine Le Pen, evidence suggests that public perceptions of these candidates are being manipulated by far right social media activists. Social media can be a ...
News
VOX-Pol Upcoming Participation in RAN Workshop on the Civil Society Empowerment Programme
March 14, 2017
On 15-16 March, VOX-Pol Programme Manager, Lisa McInerney, will participate in the EU’s Radicalisation Awareness Network’s (RAN) Civil Society Empowerment Programme’s kick-off workshop. The Civil Society Empowerment Programme (CSEP) is an initiative produced by the European Commission with the support of partners in the Internet industry; Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft. CSEP brings together internet ...
Blog
Are There Limits to Online Free Speech?: Part II
February 8, 2017
By Alice E. Marwick This post is part II of the series. Please click here to read part I. Free Speech and a Free Internet In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Reno v. ACLU case that internet speech deserved the same free speech protections as spoken or written speech. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the majority ...
Blog
Are There Limits to Online Free Speech?: Part I
February 1, 2017
By Alice E. Marwick This post is part I of the series. Please click here to read part II. In November 2016, Twitter shut down the accounts of numerous alt-right leaders and white nationalists. Richard Spencer, the head of the National Policy Institute and a vocal neo-Nazi, told the LA Times it was a violation of his free ...
Blog
Interpreting Data About Islamic State Online
January 18, 2017
By Ali Fisher Challenging ISIS has little to do with their number of followers, or the decline in their number of messages. This type of tactical-level data can indicate success, but genuine impact can only occur with robust interpretation of data at the strategic level. Recent studies have been used to claim success in reducing the number of followers ...
Blog
Online Responses to Terrorist Attacks: A #niceattack Case Study – Part 2: The Aftermath
October 26, 2016
This blog post is a follow-up to last week’s post on Twitter activity following the terrorist attack that took place in Nice, France, on 14 July, 2016 and associated real-world events during the ensuing week. It is part of a larger project exploring hashtag activism in CVE. The first posts traced the online reaction to ...
Blog
Online Responses to Terrorist Attacks: A #niceattack Case Study – Part 1: The First 20 Minutes
October 19, 2016
This blog post and a follow-up next week analyse Twitter activity following the terrorist attack that took place in Nice, France on 14 July, 2016 and associated real-world events during the ensuing week. It is part of a larger project exploring hashtag activism in CVE. This first posts traces the online reaction to developments during ...