Blog
The Christchurch Call Leaders Summit 20 September 2022: civil society perspectives
September 28, 2022
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, ...
Blog
Right-Wing Extremists’ Use of the Internet: Emerging Trends in the Empirical Literature
September 21, 2022
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, ...
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
Only Playing: Extreme-Right Gamification
November 17, 2021
By Ben Lee Video games and right-wing extremism (RWE) seem inseparable. Multiple links have been documented between extreme-right violence and video-game cultures. These include the appearance of terrorist manifestos with references to video games, modifications to popular games to bring them into line with extreme-right values, the presence of extremists on gaming platforms, and a misogyny-laced controversy in video gaming that did ...
Blog
Examining the Developmental Pathways of Online Posting Behavior in Violent Right-Wing Extremist Forums
January 27, 2021
This article summarizes a recent study published in Terrorism and Political Violence. By Ryan Scrivens, Thomas W. Wojciechowski, and Richard Frank Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have paid close attention to the presence of terrorists and extremists online in recent years, with a particular emphasis on digital communities that facilitate extreme right-wing ideologies. This is largely ...
Blog
The Christchurch Terror Attack: A Case of Online Radicalisation?
December 16, 2020
By Joe Whittaker & Chamin Herath On 15 March, 2019, a far-right terrorist conducted two consecutive attacks at Mosques in New Zealand’s capital, Christchurch. The attacker killed 51 people who had come for Friday Prayers and injured 40 more. In August of 2020 he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for his crimes. ...
News
AVERT International Speakers Series with VOX-Pol Coordinator, Prof. Maura Conway
November 30, 2020
VOX-Pol Coordinator, Prof. Maura Conway, will be presenting at AVERT’s (Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism) International Speaker Series on Wednesday, 9 December, 2020. The event is hosted online and you can register at this link. The talk is titled ‘Determining the Role of the Internet in Right-wing Extremism and Terrorism: Nine Suggestions for Progressing ...
Blog
The Role of the Internet in Facilitating Violent Extremism, Part II: Connecting On- and Offline Worlds
July 29, 2020
This article is the second of a two-part series. It summarizes a recent study published in Terrorism and Political Violence. Part I is HERE. By Tiana Gaudette, Ryan Scrivens, and Vivek Venkatesh Last week on the Blog, we argued that, while a growing body of evidence suggests that the Internet is a key facilitator of ...
Blog
The Role of the Internet in Facilitating Violent Extremism, Part I: Insights from Former Right-Wing Extremists
July 22, 2020
This article is the first of a two-part series. It summarizes a recent study published in Terrorism and Political Violence. Part II is HERE. By Tiana Gaudette, Ryan Scrivens, and Vivek Venkatesh In the past five years, it has become increasingly common for practitioners and policymakers in the western world to draw from the insights ...
Blog
Comparing Topic and Tone of Tweets by Far-Right Political Parties Versus Right-Wing Extremist Movements in the Netherlands, UK, and Germany
May 13, 2020
By Suzanne Mos The Internet is a good place to get a sense of what topics certain groups or movements deem important. In this Blog post, I present the findings of comparative mixed methods research addressing the question ‘How does the use of Twitter by far-right political parties differ from right-wing extremist movements in terms ...