Blog
Exploring Canadian Far-Right Extremism on Facebook
February 5, 2020
By Ryan Scrivens and Amarnath Amarasingam Following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Canadian right-wing extremist (RWE) groups tried desperately to band together, planning a number of rallies and events in some of the nation’s most urban cities to show support for the extreme right in general and to promote racist, anti-immigration sentiment ...
News
New VOX-Pol Report: How Extreme is the European Far Right?
November 12, 2019
VOX-Pol is pleased to present a new report in the VOX-Pol publication series, titled How Extreme is the European Far-Right? Investigating Overlaps in the German Far-Right Scene on Twitter by Reem Ahmed and Daniela Pisoiu. The launch – in print and online – takes place at the final Lunch Briefing session on 12 November 2019 ...
Blog
The Curation/Search Radicalization Spiral
May 29, 2019
By Mike Caulfield Sam prides himself on questioning conventional wisdom and subjecting claims to intellectual scrutiny. For kids today, that means Googling stuff. One might think these searches would turn up a variety of perspectives, including at least a few compelling counterarguments. One would be wrong. The Google searches flooded his developing brain with endless ...
Blog
New Zealand Attack: Why are Media Outlets Helping Terrorists?
March 27, 2019
By Nancy Jamal In the aftermath of the Christchurch attack, attention has been drawn to the role of mass media in the aftermath of such attacks, including by the UK’s most senior counter-terrorism police officer, Neil Basu. Last week’s Blog post also addressed responsible reporting, as does Virginie Andre’s report Understanding the Impact of Terrorist Event Reporting on Countering ...
News
VOX-Pol and Security Distillery Symposium – Extremism: Online Networks and Offline Violence
March 26, 2019
On 20 March 2019, VOX-Pol and the Security Distillery hosted a symposium in Dublin City University titled ‘Extremism: Online Networks and Offline Violence’. The Security Distillery is an initiative from young researchers for (young) researchers, with the aim of turning complex issues into simple matters in order to provide quality, accessible information for students and ...
Blog
Fear, More Than Hate, Feeds Online Bigotry and Real-World Violence
March 13, 2019
By Adam G. Klein When a U.S. senator asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Can you define hate speech?” it was arguably the most important question that social networks face: how to identify extremism inside their communities. Hate crimes in the 21st century follow a familiar pattern in which an online tirade escalates into violent actions. ...
Blog
Tracing Transnational Linkages on Twitter: Mapping Indian Diaspora Supporters of Brexit and Trump
February 20, 2019
By Eviane Leidig A lacuna exists in the study of the radical right whereby researchers focus disproportionately on developments in Europe and North America. Yet, countries such as India, the Philippines, Turkey, and Brazil highlight how the radical right can operate, and indeed flourish, beyond the West. Our failure to incorporate these non-Western case studies poses ...
Blog
Upvoting Extremism, Part II: An Assessment of Extreme-Right Discourse on Reddit
December 5, 2018
By Tiana Gaudette, Garth Davies, and Ryan Scrivens This blog is Part II of II. Click here for Part I. This blog is the second of a two-part series that was presented at the ‘VOX-Pol Conference – Violent Extremism, Terrorism, and the Internet: Present and Future Trends’ in Amsterdam on 20 August 2018. Last week on ...
Blog
Upvoting Extremism, Part I: An Assessment Of Extreme Right Discourse On Reddit
November 28, 2018
By Tiana Gaudette, Garth Davies, and Ryan Scrivens This blog is the first of a two-part series; it was originally presented at the ‘VOX-Pol Conference – Violent Extremism, Terrorism, and the Internet: Present and Future Trends’ in Amsterdam on 20 August 2018. Like other extremist movements, right-wing extremists from across the globe have exploited the power of the ...
Blog
The Australian New-Right Movement: Online and ‘Others’
October 3, 2018
By Jade Hutchinson The ‘Right’ Kind of Dogma Radical-right groups harness online platforms to disseminate dogmas against the ‘Other’. In response to an influx of foreign migrants, the concatenation of Islamist terrorism and record levels of distrust in government institutions, the radical-right is invigorated by an aggressive anti-‘Other’ sentiment. As the source of social anxiety and ...