From neo-Nazis and far-right groups to Islamic State, those seeking to instigate hate and violence for their ideological ends are finding new platforms to do so as traditional social media platforms crack down on their content. New platforms, including the chat application Discord, live-streaming sites such as Twitch, online games…
The Capitol Insurrection in the United States on January 6, 2021, sent shockwaves around the world. From London to Canberra, and Ottawa to Auckland, millions watched as a mob of far-right violent extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol seeking to overturn the results of a free and fair presidential election that…
On 9 March 2019, a 28-year-old Australian white supremacist murdered 51 people during Friday prayers at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch. This was the deadliest mass shooting in the history of New Zealand and was carried out by a “lone actor”. In the months…
From the beginning of the armed conflict in Syria, in 2012, more than a thousand foreign terrorist fighters and their family members moved from Western Balkan countries to Syria and Iraq, many of whom ended up joining ISIS. The countries with the highest number of departures—Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North…
There has been, especially of late, increasing concern over the misuse of video-games and associated (adjacent) platforms (e.g. Steam, Discord, Twitch, DLive) for the purposes of extremism and violent extremism. Across the European Union (and for that matter globally), policymakers, law enforcement, academics, and counter-extremism practitioners have started to engage…
Although the use and abuse of not only video games but also gaming adjacent communications platforms and gaming imagery by violent extremists receives high profile press attention, the nature and extent of this problem remains poorly understood by many frontline practitioners. The aim of the RAN Communication and Narratives Working…
On 12 May 2021, the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport published the draft Online Safety Bill (OSB), aiming to counter harmful content online and announced in a White Paper in April 2019. In July 2021, a Joint Committee on the draft was established by the House of…
Al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has changed. So too must the counterterrorism community’s approach to it. Beset by infighting, riddled with spies, decimated by drones, and instrumentalized by Yemen’s warring parties, the jihadi movement in the region has fragmented. The conventional labels of al-Qa`ida and the Islamic State have…
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is hiring 2-3 senior researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park. These are full‐time positions, with an initial term of 12 months (starting in fall 2021), with potential for renewal given availability of funding. U.S. citizenship…
This study presents the findings of a laboratory-based experiment testing hypothesised processes implicated in the prevention of violent radicalisation through counter-narratives. The central aims of the study were to contribute to counter-narrative theory, whilst highlighting the value of experimental methodologies that can be deployed in this area of scientific enquiry….
Even though it is well documented that women have had, and continue to have, muchmore prominent positions and stronger participation in violent left-wing extremism and terrorism compared to other forms of political violence, the literature on their motivations to join militant left-wing milieus and groups is under-developed. Compared to female…
With the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks just over two weeks away, the Council on Foreign Relations have recommended some podcasts to learning more about that tragic day and its consequences.
