News
First Monday Special Issue Published on Resilience to Online Polarisation and Extremism
May 11, 2022
On 2 May 2022, First Monday published a Special Issue exploring societal resilience to online polarisation and extremism, co-edited by Amy-Louise Watkin (VOX-Pol and USW), Vivian Gerrand (Deakin University), and Maura Conway (VOX-Pol and DCU). The seven articles in this special issue were selected from those delivered at a series of workshops undertaken by the ...
Blog
The Right-leaning be Memeing: Extremist Uses of Internet Memes and Insights for CVE Design
May 11, 2022
This Blog post is the first in a four-part series of article summaries from the EU H2020-funded BRaVE project’s  First Monday Special Issue exploring societal resilience to online polarization and extremism. The second is HERE. Read the full article HERE [Ed.]. By Inés Bolaños Somoano This post synopsises my article ‘The right-leaning be memeing: Extremist uses ...
Blog
From the Vicious Cycle to Ideological Convergence
January 26, 2022
By Jakob Guhl, Moustafa Ayad and Julia Ebner How Islamist extremists and the violent right wing interact and influence each other The interplay between Islamist extremists and the violent right wing has raised fears among policy makers and practitioners about a vicious cycle of escalating tensions between extremist movements. These dynamics do not merely present ...
Blog
How the Radical Right Weaponises Memes
September 16, 2020
By Chamila Liyanage Far-right populist nationalism seems contagious. It’s the new normal and one can only wonder how it all started, as the rise of far-right populism appears to come out of nowhere. An average reader of the mainstream media would have long overlooked the discord sowed among the ordinary people in the grassroots. Far-right ...
Blog
How Memes are Becoming the New Frontier of Information Warfare
April 1, 2020
By Tom Ascott Everyone has seen a meme, whether they know it or not. They’re everywhere on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The most popular ones make it off the Internet and show up in newspapers, television shows or films. You’ve almost certainly seen Pepe the Frog, and if you haven’t seen the classic ‘Woman yelling ...