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Insights

Insights

  • Oct042023

    The New Online Radicals: The Third Generation of Online Radicalisation

    Introduction When a 13-year-old boy was caught by Estonian police in early 2020 leading a major international terrorist organisation, shockwaves…

  • Oct022023

    Tankies: A Data-driven Understanding of Left-Wing Extremists on Social Media

    Introduction In an era where social media has become a powerful platform for political discourse and activism, the narratives of…

  • Sep292023

    Unmasking Islamophobic Disinformation in the Aftermath of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Attack 

    Introduction      Disinformation is a soft security notion that leads to hard security threats. It involves deliberately spreading false information with…

  • Sep272023

    Milk Parties and Soyjaks: Understanding The Alt-Right’s Metapolitical Appropriation of Milk

    Introduction  The imagery and symbolism associated with milk – from fertility and motherhood to purity and strength – have long…

  • Sep252023

    ‘A New Image of Terror and Dread’: The Significance Of Dark Foreigner’s Arrest

    Content Warning: this Insight contains images of neo-Nazi propaganda Introduction On 5 July 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)…

  • Sep222023

    From British Imperialism to ‘Globohomo’: Analysing the Irish Far-Right’s Engagement with Irish Nationalism on Telegram

    Introduction Ireland has seen limited instances of far-right and xenophobic nationalism, as left-wing political movements predominantly shape the nationalist landscape.…

  • Sep202023

    An Evolving Threat Landscape: Composite Violent Extremism and Prevention Efforts

    Introduction A year before William Atchison carried out the 2017 Aztec High School shooting in New Mexico, killing two people…

  • Sep182023

    Mapping Extremist Discourse Communities on Telegram: The Case of the Russian Imperial Movement

    Introduction Telegram hosts thousands of groups and channels associated with extremism. This Insight contributes to a growing literature applying computational…

  • Sep152023

    QAnon, Political Radicalisation and January 6th: A Gendered Perspective

    Introduction By now, many have heard of QAnon, an online phenomenon that originated in late October of 2017, when the…

  • Sep132023

    Authoritarian Platforms: Far-right Radicalisation Amidst Economic Precarity in Brazil

    Introduction When I started my fieldwork in an informal street market in Brazil, I was greeted with the statement ‘Welcome…

  • Sep112023

    Why We Should Care about Christian Identity Ideology and its Links to Antisemitic Mobilisation 

    Introduction  In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that antisemitic incidents in the United States – including assault, vandalism, and…

  • Sep072023

    Towards a Policy Framework for Addressing Violent Conspiracy Theory Movements

    In this GNET Insights miniseries, ISD experts explore the complex intersection of conspiracy theories, violence and extremism. In the fourth…

  • Sep062023

    Culture, Community and Narratives: Key Elements of Violent Conspiracy Theories 

    Across this GNET Insights miniseries, ISD experts explore the complex intersection of conspiracy theories, violence and extremism. In the third…

  • Sep052023

    Beyond Terrorism: Understanding the Diverse Violent Outcomes of Conspiracy Beliefs

    Across this GNET Insights miniseries, ISD experts explore the complex intersection of conspiracy theories, violence and extremism. In the second…

  • Sep042023

    Conspiracy Theories, Extremism and Violence: Why and When do Conspiracy Beliefs Lead to Violence?

    Across this Insights miniseries, ISD experts explore the complex intersection of conspiracy theories, violence and extremism. In the first article…

  • Sep012023

    Social Control, Terrorist Content and the Online Safety Bill

    *Please note: The provisions of the Online Safety Bill are correct as of 27 July 2023, and are subject to…

  • Aug302023

    For the AI Generation, We Need Education as Much as Regulation

    Introduction In the field of responsible tech, contemporary digital technologies such as large language models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming a…

  • Aug292023

    ‘Deepfake Doomsday’: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Amplifying Apocalyptic Islamist Propaganda

    Introduction The advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology has introduced a myriad of user-friendly tools and tactics such as…

  • Aug242023

    ‘Salad Bar Extremism’ as White Distraction: The (In)coherence of a Category

    Introduction In 2018, the United Kingdom renamed its ‘unspecified’ category for extremism referrals to ‘mixed, unclear, or unstable ideologies’ (MUU…

  • Aug232023

    White Jihad: The Jihadification of White Supremacy

    Content Warning: this Insight contains images of neo-Nazi propaganda Introduction In a recent article for Terrorism and Political Violence, ‘White…

  • Aug212023

    Examining Support for the 2023 Brazilian Coup Attempt: Gender Stereotypes and Occupational Trends in a Radicalised Digital Ecosystem

    Introduction On 8 January 2023, Brazil witnessed the most threatening coup attempt in its recent democratic history. Inspired by the…

  • Aug182023

    Discrepancies Between Social Media Policy and User Experience: A Preliminary Study of Extremist Content

    Introduction Latest reports have highlighted that as of April 2023, 60% of the world’s population utilises social media for an…

  • Aug162023

    Meta Terror?: The Threats and Challenges of the Metaverse 

    Introduction Since their inception, terrorists have used the Internet and social media platforms to spread propaganda, communicate, incite, recruit, train,…

  • Aug142023

    A Move from Nazism to Nationalism: Changes in Far-Right Online Discourse Post-Ukraine Conflict

    Introduction Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, online discourse by far-right groups in Eastern European regions has altered.…

  • Aug112023

    Cults and Online Violent Extremism: Individual Risk Assessments 

    This series of Insights draws on the GNET report by Inform: ‘Cults and Online Violent Extremism’. Inform are an independent…

  • Aug092023

    Cultic Fandoms: Columbine and Ted Kaczynski

    This series of Insights draws on the GNET report by Inform: ‘Cults and Online Violent Extremism’. Inform are an independent…

  • Aug072023

    Online Cultic Milieus: QAnon and Anti-Vax Conspiracy Movements

    This series of Insights draws on the GNET report by Inform: ‘Cults and Online Violent Extremism’. Inform are an independent…

  • Aug032023

    ‘Cultic’ Religious Groups: Order of Nine Angles

    This series of Insights draws on the GNET report by Inform: ‘Cults and Online Violent Extremism’. Inform are an independent…

  • Aug012023

    An Introduction to Cults and Online Violent Extremism

    This series of Insights draws on the GNET report, ‘Cults and Online Violent Extremism’ by Inform (Information Network Focus on…

  • Jul282023

    Schrödinger’s Joke: The Weaponisation of Irony and Humour in the Alt-Right 

    Introduction The use of online memes is a cultural stamp of the alt-right community; the packaging of political ideology into…

  • Jul262023

    Fanboys or the Frontline?: How al-Shabaab’s Social Media Influencers are Controlling the Narrative 

    For over a decade, the Somali-based terrorist group al-Shabaab has prioritised media engagement as a critical component of its propaganda…

  • Jul242023

    Europe’s Thin Blue Line: How The Far-Right Imposes Its Ideology On The Police

    Introduction Since 2013, amidst a wave of high-profile cases of police brutality and the rise of the Black Lives Matter…

  • Jul212023

    Extremist Violence Against the Trans and LGBTQI+ Community in Australia: A Review of Recent Events

    Introduction Members of the LGBTQI+ community have long been targeted by far-right actors. However, across the last 12 months, violence…

  • Jul192023

    The ‘Critical’ and the ‘Sheep’: How Users of Far-Right Pages on Social Media See Themselves and the Mainstream

    This Insight summarises some of the findings presented in the article “Far-right virtual communities: Exploring users and uses of far-right…

  • Jul172023

    Beyond Fake News: Meta-Ideological Awareness (MIA) as an Antidote to Conspiracy and Radicalisation

    Introduction  Online misinformation and disinformation are widely recognised as detrimental to society, most of all due to their links with…

  • Jul132023

    Content Moderation Through Removal of Service: Content Delivery Networks and Extremist Websites

    Introduction Kiwifarms was an internet forum known for its active targeting and harassment of trans people. In August 2022, the…

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