Blog
Off the Richter Scale: Tracking Misinformation in the Aftermath of the Kahramanmaras Earthquake – The Failing of Twitter’s Blue Tick Policy
July 12, 2023
By Ashton Kingdon & Briony Gray The cost of misinformation can be deadly during crisis. Undermining public trust, emergency response effectiveness and potentially life-saving activities, misinformation has become an increasing trend in the aftermath of natural disasters that has spread like wildfire across a global audience. The expansion in the use of intelligence systems has ...
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Mobilising Extremism in Times of Change: Understanding the Far-Right’s Use of Toxic Communications
June 28, 2023
by Jonathan Collins This article summarises a recent paper published in European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research The rise of harmful far-right narratives and the increasing reliance on social media platforms for socialising have created a fertile breeding ground for radical ideological movements and social divisions during the (and “post”) pandemic. However, there is ...
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The EU Internet Referral Unit (IRU): Addressing terrorist content online
June 21, 2023
By Camille Antunes Online platforms and social media channels have given new opportunities for terrorists to reach more audiences, significantly enhancing their ability to radicalise and recruit. As a result, online monitoring has become vital to prevent the dissemination of violent extremist and terrorist content online that can contribute to radicalisation, and counter-terrorism operations. As ...
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Hate in the Homeland: Reorienting Our Analytic Perspective on Extremism – A Book Review
June 14, 2023
A Book Review by Ashley Mattheis Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right takes an innovative line of approach to exploring processes of radicalization through an analysis of spaces and places where interaction and engagement with extremism occur. This may seem a small shift but represents a major perspectival refocusing in both practical ...
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My Wish to be a #Tradwife: An Introduction to #tradwife Memes on Whisper
June 7, 2023
By Ninian Frenguelli and Amy-Louise Watkin Research into online extremist behaviour is centred around Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, 4chan, Telegram, and Gab. Studies focusing on platforms where image sharing is the purpose (rather than text or video sharing) are generally underrepresented in the literature on online extremist content. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube account for 55%, 35% and 8.7% of the studies ...
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Part 5: Recruiting and Vetting Candidates for Membership in The Base
May 31, 2023
Anthony F. Lemieux, Georgia State University Background:  Our research team at Georgia State University (Anthony Lemieux, P.I., Dror Walter, Rebecca Wilson, Katherine Kountz, John Hendry, Allison Betus, and Mor Yachin) and the University of Cincinnati (Michael Loadenthal) have been working on analyses of a corpus of leaked interviewing and vetting calls provided to our research ...
Blog
Mapping the Agenda for Incel Research: Over-trodden Paths vs. Unchartered Territories
May 24, 2023
Stephane J. Baele The past few years have seen a sharp increase in the attention paid by extremism and terrorism scholars to the incel phenomenon, and to the manosphere more broadly. The 2018 Toronto van attack acted like an electroshock waking up the field to the reality and often violent consequences of the sprawling toxic ...
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Cyberterrorism – the greatest threat to US vital interests?
May 17, 2023
Lee Jarvis, Professor of International Politics, University of East Anglia, UK A recent survey of public opinion conducted by the independent polling company, Gallup asked people in the United States to evaluate the threat posed by a range of different actors, issues, and events to US vital interests. 74% of those surveyed saw Iran’s nuclear ...
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Using Online Data in Terrorism Research
May 10, 2023
by Stuart Macdonald, Elizabeth Pearson, Ryan Scrivens, and Joe Whittaker This article summarises a recent paper published in Lara Frumkin, John Morrison, and Andrew Silke’s A Research Agenda for Terrorism Studies (Elgar). Historically one of the greatest challenges for the study of extreme or terrorist groups was access. Today, online spaces offer researchers a level ...
Blog
Part 4: Recruiting and Vetting Candidates for Membership in The Base
May 2, 2023
Anthony F. Lemieux, Georgia State University Background:  Our research team at Georgia State University (Anthony Lemieux, P.I., Dror Walter, Rebecca Wilson, Katherine Kountz, John Hendry, Allison Betus, and Mor Yachin) and the University of Cincinnati (Michael Loadenthal) have been working on analyses of a corpus of leaked interviewing and vetting calls provided to our research ...