By Dr Elizabeth Pearson Terrorist propaganda videos, extremist narratives, child sexual exploitation images. These are amongst the materials that content moderators across social media platforms deal with on a daily basis. They’re also materials that academic researchers engage with in order to better understand particular forms of online crime. Over the past decade, the emotional…
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Book Review by Seán Looney “Put starkly: Facebook livestreamed this massacre. While the terrorist was cast as a ‘lone gunman’ he was anything but alone.” The introduction to Editors Shirley Leitch and Paul Pickering’s book lays out the global impact of the Christchurch Attack succinctly. The book could be more accurately described as ‘Rethinking Social…
This article summarizes a panel from the Terrorism and Social Media Conference 2022 hosted by Swansea University. By Mr Jade Hutchinson State of play Networks of organisms and their relationship with different environments are difficult to theorize. Natural sciences are abundant in terms and concepts to articulate the emergent complexity of evolving networks, their processes…
By Daniel Siegel and Mary Bennett Doty U.S. troop withdrawal & Taliban mobilizations In 2011, despite concerns about the Afghan government’s capacity to secure its territory, President Obama set a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops. Subsequently, the Trump and Biden administrations backed further efforts to reduce troops in Afghanistan. While military experts…
This article summarizes the recent research note that examines the literature on online terrorism studies, published by Ali Unlu and Kamil Yilmaz. By Kamil Yilmaz There has been a steady increase in the number of scientific productions on terrorism during the last two decades. One specific area of research that gained traction is online radicalization…
By Jonathan Pieslak In late June 2012 the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)—one of the premier hate-group and extremism watchdog organizations in the United States—published a report on racist skinhead subculture, describing the movement as “…among the most dangerous far-right threats facing law enforcement today.” Sadly, the report offered an all-too-accurate description of the potency…
This article summarizes the recent research report Mainstream media use in far-right online ecosystems, published by Mario Peucker, Thomas J. Fisher and Jacob Davey (ISD). A more in-depth analysis was also published in the journal Media , Culture & Society. By Mario Peucker Mistrust in the media is widespread among Australians, but this view becomes particularly antagonistic…
By Farzaneh Badii, Anjum Rahman, and Katy Vaughan On 20th September 2022, Leaders of the Christchurch Call Community including Heads of State and Government, the Technology Industry, Civil Society, and Partners of the Call participated in the third Leaders’ Summit in New York. The Summit provided an innovative approach to multilateral dialogue. The round table,…
This article summarizes a recent paper published in Barbara Perry, Jeff Gruenwald, and Ryan Scrivens’ ‘Right-Wing Extremism in Canada and the United States’ (Palgrave). By Ryan Scrivens, Tiana Gaudette, Maura Conway, and Thomas J. Holt Close attention by journalists and policymakers to the widespread use of the Internet by violent Western (i.e., American, Canadian, Australian,…
This article summarises one of the recent outputs of a sub-group of GIFCT’s Legal Frameworks Working Group 2022. By Katy Vaughan Most tech companies now have polices aimed at countering terrorist and violent extremist content (TVEC) on their platforms and services. It is also a condition of GIFCT membership that companies must have policies that…
