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. The keynote speakers are VOX-Pol member Professor Paul Gill (UCL) and Founder and CEO of Moonshot, Vidhya Ramalingam. Early bird tickets are available for purchase from the conference website until 28 February.
TASM is held biennially at Swansea University, UK, and is one of the largest conferences of its kind, combining a specific focus on online extremism and responses with a strong emphasis on collaboration and multi-stakeholder participation. For highlights of previous TASMs, click here.
VOX-Pol INSTITUTE WEBINAR
| Joe Whittaker and Ellie Rogers presented a VOX-Pol Institute webinar on the algorithmic amplification of counter-speech. As social media platforms increasingly rely on recommendation algorithms to personalise user experiences, concerns have grown about how these systems may inadvertently amplify extremist or otherwise problematic content. Some policymakers have suggested that these algorithm-driven ‘filter bubbles’ could contribute to radicalisation by shaping what users see, engage with and believe. The webinar explored:How recommendation algorithms can unintentionally promote harmful or ideologically homogeneous materialThe real risks posed by algorithmic amplificationPractical and emerging responses, from counter-speech strategies to downranking approaches andHow platforms might better balance personalisation, safety, and freedom of expression. A recording of the webinar is available on request. Please send an email to: info@voxpolinstitute.org |
THE CATALYST PUBLIC POLICY CHAMPIONS PROGRAMME
| The Catalyst Public Policy Champions Programme is an intensive, international fully-funded executive-style training programme designed to strengthen policy responses to the growing links between online gender-based violence and violent extremism. Led by the Christchurch Call Foundation, and delivered by the Hertie School in partnership with the VOX-Pol Institute, the programme equips policymakers and practitioners with the evidence, skills, and cross-sectoral networks needed to design and implement effective, context-sensitive responses to hybrid online harms, terrorism, and radicalisation dynamics. Applications close on 20 February. For details of how to apply, visit the Hertie School’s website. |
PUBLICATIONS FROM VOX-Pol MEMBERS
Jonathan Collins examined the recruitment practices of four prominent alt-tech platforms: Gab, Parler, Truth Social and Gettr, providing an in-depth comparative analysis of their homepages. The results are published in the article ‘Window-shopping the far-right: A comparative study of alt-tech social media homepages‘ in the journal Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.
Miron Lakomy and colleagues published an article on ‘Under the Radar: Exploring the Salafi-Jihadi Terrorist Information Ecosystem on TikTok‘ in the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.
Together with Kate J. Freemann, Michael Loadenthal published an article on ‘Throwback Fascism: Accelerationist fascination with the faux 50s‘, relating to online extremist subcultures, in the journal Crime, Media, Culture.
Audrey Gagnon and Tamta Gelashvili published a chapter on ‘The rise of online harm: individual, community and institutional strategies to protect researchers‘, in the book ‘(Un)Silencing Academia in Times of Epistemic Conflicts: Navigating Online Violence.’ edited by Alberta Giorgi and Hande Eslen-Ziya.
RECENTLY ON THE VOX-Pol BLOG
| Recently published on the VOX-Pol Blog AI, Anger and Entitlement: What’s Fuelling Misogynistic Extremism Online, 4 February 2026, by Bernadette Johnston Online Terrorist Exploitation: Responding to Children as Victims and Perpetrators, 28 January 2026, by Gina Vale Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet – and AI is their next frontier, 21 January 2026, by Michelle Lynn Kahn Bondi attack came after huge increase in online antisemitism: research, 14 January 2026, by Matteo Vergani Are you interested in publishing an article with VOX-Pol? Read our Blog submission instructions here. |