Blog

By Human Digital Introduction Across the 10th and 11th September 2025, people seeking footage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk triggered a 110% increase in total visitor numbers to 21 gore sites (Figure 1). As detailed in Human Digital’s VOX-Pol report, Gore & Violent Extremism, those visitors will have been exposed to videos involving graphic ...

By Kye Allen Introduction On 3 July, Constantin von Hoffmeister, then editor-in-chief of Arktos—the leading publisher of Eurasian, identitarian, and New Right thought—announced a new venture, Multipolar Press. Within two months, he was removed from his editorial position at Arktos. Unpacking the reasons behind his dismissal reveals ideological fissures within the far right’s intellectual milieu.  ...

By Garth Davies and Mackenzie B. Hart On September 25 and 26th, the Canadian Network for Research on Security, Extremism and Society (CANSES) hosted its 2nd Annual Workshop at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. First and foremost, CANSES is a network that connects individuals working on extremism across a variety of sectors. Reflecting ...

By Sarah Stevenson and Dr Steve Barracosa Practitioners working in the field of countering violent extremism (CVE) are routinely exposed to confronting and offensive ideas and content, including graphic violence, gore, hate, terrorist propaganda and ideologies. Despite this, there is a relative gap in the literature considering the experiences and well-being of practitioners undertaking this ...

By Sara Hill When an extremist opened fire on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, murdering 51 people and injuring many more in 2019, headlines around the world began talking about ‘ecofascists’, a label the shooter had claimed in his manifesto. When that attack was followed by another a few years later using the same ...

By Ryan Ratnam Introduction Earlier this year, numerous Instagram users took to scrolling through the Reels function of the platform as usual, only to be met with extremely violent and graphic content, ranging from animal abuse to human murder. Meta apologised, saying there had been an algorithmic error which had now been rectified. However, this ...

By Francesca Gentile and Isabella Gomez O’Keefe Our recent research, presented at the VOX-Pol Next Gen Conference in Prague, explored how far-right extremist accounts on TikTok use coded language to evade content moderation systems in order to establish and reinforce in-group and out-group identities; recruit, radicalise, and mobilise individuals; and spread disinformation, conspiracy theories, and ...

By Keighley Perkins and Nuria Lorenzo-Dus Across the summers of 2024 and 2025, demonstrations and riots linked to the far-right reignited tensions over immigration and cultural belonging in the UK. Heated debates on our screens spilled onto the streets, exposing how radical right narratives are no longer confined to the fringe but are seeping into ...

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 ...

Nicholas A.R. Fraser, Senior Research Associate, Toronto Metropolitan University Most of us, whether we admit it or not, engage in a great deal of passive scrolling through social media daily. And while the platforms have proliferated for years, experts are only now beginning to demonstrate their full impact on our attention, mental health, spending habits and politics. Despite the benefits, social ...