Welcome to Volume 12, Issue 8 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter.
NEW PUBLICATION
We are pleased to share a new report from Human Digital and VOX-Pol, titled, ‘Gore & Violent Extremism: An explorative analysis of the use of gore websites for hosting and sharing extremist and terrorist content’.
The report was launched at an online event. This is available as a private video on the VOX-Pol YouTube channel, if you’d like to watch it, please email info@voxpol.eu to request access.
All our reports are available to read for free and in full on the VOX-Pol Publications page.
UPCOMING EVENTS
OICD Expert Workshop
You are invited to a one-day intensive workshop titled Reclaiming Our Narratives – Building Resilience Against Disinformation. This is taking place on Thursday 11 September 2025 and co-organised by the University of Salford and the Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD), and VOX-Pol member Dr Anna Kruglova.
In today’s digital landscape, identity-based disinformation (IBD) represents one of the most insidious threats to social cohesion and democratic values. Traditional counter-narrative approaches often fail or even backfire when confronting this sophisticated form of manipulation. This intensive one-day workshop equips participants with powerful, evidence-based strategies to respond effectively to IBD through “equal alternative narratives” – positive content that fulfills the same psychological needs that disinformation exploits, but in healthy, inclusive ways.
Find out more and register at Eventbrite.
AoIR 2025
The Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference #AoIR2025 is a hybrid event taking place 15-18 October 2025 in Niterói, Brazil. The keynote speaker is VOX-Pol Member Dr. R. Marie Santini, and the keynote is titled ‘The Digital Break: When Big Tech (re)Fused the Global North and South’.
There are two different registrations for this conference – one for in person attendees and one for remote attendees.
- In person only: https://members.aoir.org/event-6216401
- Online only: https://members.aoir.org/event-6216484
Recent events
VOX-Pol Member, Dr Joe Whittaker, gave expert advice at an evidence session for the UK Home Affairs Committee, for the first session of its inquiry into new forms of extremism. The session examined new and emerging forms of extremism in the UK, with a particular focus on young people and online spaces. It will examined if current mechanisms for combatting extremism – including Prevent – are adequate to identify and address the new forms it can take. Read more about it here.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY VOX-Pol MEMBERS
- In July, Dr Sören Henrich published a multi-study that proposes a new conceptual model for clinical guidance in risk formulation, namely the Eco-System of Extremist Violence. Read it here: The Eco-System of Extremist Violence (ES-EV): Exploration of radicalisation in forensic psychiatric populations. This was also summarised in a VOX-Pol Blog post.
- Additionally, Dr Henrich’s systematic literature review about the quality of empirical evidence regarding our knowledge of radicalisation processes was summarised for the EU Knowledge Hub for Prevention of Radicalisation.
- SCENOR (SCientia ENim ORbis terrarum) is a VOX-Pol partner organisation and non-profit association based in Vienna, Austria. Their research activities focus on the topics violent extremism, terrorism, radicalization, and conspiracy myths. SCENOR member Erik Hacker recently authored the article Generation Jihad: The Profile and Modus Operandi of Minors Involved in Recent Islamist Terror Plots in Europe in CTC Sentinel.
- VOX-Pol Member Audrey Gagnon co-authored the paper How can institutions better support researchers? The case of extremism and terrorism research, published in Qualitative Research, and is available open access.
- Sophia Rothut authored the open access paper, Promoting Politics: Political Social Media Influencers, Their Online Engagement, and Implications for Democracy. in the journal, American Behavioral Scientist. Sophia contributed a post to the VOX-Pol Blog about social media influencers in November 2024, read it here.
- Ellie Rogers wrote the open access paper, The need for greater transparency in the moderation of borderline terrorist and violent extremist content, published in the journal Internet Policy Review.
- Nicole Sanchotene spoke with Radio France Internationale (RFI) about platform regulation in Latin America, focusing on national sovereignty, the political and economic power of tech companies, and their role in the circulation and amplification of anti-democratic content. Listen here.
- Anda Solea published an article on GNET, Prompted to Harm: Analysing the Pirkkala School Stabbing and Its Digital Manifesto. Anda’s research primarily covers TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
RECENTLY ON THE VOX-Pol BLOG
The VOX-Pol Blog publishes weekly on Wednesdays, except over the one-month summer break in August. This July we published an extra post before the break. In the last month on the Blog:
- Accessing Social Media Data in 2025, 31 July 2025, Ninian Frenguelli
- Nihilistic and Apocalyptic Violent Extremism: Symbolic Rupture and the Crisis of Meaning in the Digital Age, 29 July 2025, Mark Peden
- Exploiting the Algorithm: How British Extreme Right-Wing Individuals and Groups Leverage Grok and Generative AI for Malign Purposes, 23 July 2025, Alice Sibley and Joshua Bowes
- I Analyzed More Than 100 Extremist Manifestos: Misogyny was the Common Thread, 16 July 2025, Karmvir K. Padda,
- The Eco-System of Extremist Violence As A New Lens, 9 July 2025, Sören Henrich
The top 4 most-read Blog posts for the year 2024/25 will be shared on our LinkedIn page throughout August.
VOX-Pol is now on Bluesky!
Follow us for updates @vox-pol.bsky.social.