Online extremism

By Kawser Ahmed As the nation mourns after Canada’s deadliest school shooting in modern history, a question looms for people both close to the events and further away: Why? As with other mass shootings, this painful question is complex and difficult to answer. As reported by the New York Times, an investigation into the shooter’s ...

Welcome to Volume 13, Issue 3 of the monthly VOX-Pol Newsletter. The Only Way is Ethics: Next Gen Networks Unite The University of Southampton’s Centre for Criminology in the Digital Age is excited to convene an event dedicated to supporting the next generation of researchers working at the cutting edge of sensitive, ethically complex research. This ...

By Christopher V. David and Marten Risius Extremist groups operate in an environment where trust is existential and suspicion is constant—every new member could be an ally or an informant. The Provisional IRA, for example, famously operated a dedicated squad tasked with tracking down and liquidating informers within their ranks. Though in a spectacular twist, ...

By Bernadette Johnston Misogyny and problematic attitudes towards women are not new phenomena. What is new however is the speed and scale at which misogynistic ideas and related behaviours now circulate – particularly online. Problematic ‘nudification apps,’ whose sole purpose is to underdress and sexually transform photos of women online without their consent, have existed ...

Michelle Lynn Kahn, University of Richmond How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and ’90s – and it hasn’t gone away. Decades before artificial intelligence, Telegram and white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ livestreams, far-right ...

By Antara Chakraborthy On the 19th of December 2024, Atul Subhash, a 28-year-old techie from Bangalore, India, recorded an 80-minute video blaming his wife, feminism, and the Indian court system, before ending his life. Within hours, his video and suicide note were widely circulated by India’s men’s rights organisations in India. Subash was hailed as ...

Kristy Campion, Charles Sturt University and Emma Colvin, Charles Sturt University Vulnerable young Australians are being targeted and recruited into extremist organisations. Sometimes, adult recruiters use grooming and coercion. Young people are seen as easy targets because they are looking for a place to belong, rather than holding deep-seated ideological beliefs. Last week, Australia’s Independent ...

Karmvir K. Padda, University of Waterloo Two years have passed since a 24-year-old former student walked into a gender studies classroom at the University of Waterloo and stabbed the professor and two students. The attack left the campus shaken and sparked national outrage. Many saw the attack as a shocking but isolated act of violence. ...

By Stuart Macdonald In a recent article, co-authored with Jonathan Hall KC, I made the argument that it is possible to disseminate terrorist propaganda to the public in (what may be regarded by some as) private online spaces. Here, I outline this argument and consider its relevance to the EU’s Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation. ...

By Bo Min Keum and Richard Frank Background Research suggests that participating in online forums give Incels a sense of belonging and validation for their shared grievances and struggles. Therefore, posing the question; why would they stop posting, and what do they say before they do? Given the emerging research on Incel posting trajectories, and ...