Tech Against Terrorism

In this week’s episode, we’re revisiting how Islamist terrorist groups disseminate propaganda online. We look at the tactics these groups use to ensure their propaganda remains online and reaches as wide an audience as possible. And we find out how platforms are fighting back.

Join Archie Macfarlane as he speaks with Dr. Stuart Macdonald, professor of law at Swansea University and Director of the University’s Cyber Threats Research Centre (CYTREC), and Sean McCafferty, a researcher and OSINT analyst at Dublin City University.

Stuart and Sean have co-authored a report on the state of 'Online Jihadist Propaganda dissemination.' Their research provides insights into the characteristics of online terrorist ecosystems, the adaptive tactics employed by these entities in reaction to moderation, and presents recommendations for both tech platforms and policymakers.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on X.
Resources:

• Online Jihadist Propaganda dissemination report (COMING SOON)
• Tech Against Terrorism: Ethics of Content Moderation
• Tech Against Terrorism Podcast: Combating Terrorist Use of File-Sharing

In this week’s episode, we investigate the term ‘White Jihad,’ the seemingly paradoxical interaction between white supremacy and Jihadism online. We ask how this loose online community emerged, who it attracts, and what can be done to counter it. 

Join Archie Macfarlane as he speaks with Dr. Federico Borgonovo, a research-analyst at ITSTIME, the Italian Team for Security Terroristic Issues and Managing Emergencies, at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, in Milan.

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on X, where you can find resources on this topic. 

Resources:

• ITSTIME website
• Exploring the Whitejihad Digital Ecosystem - F.Borgonovo & S.R.Lucini
• Tech Against Terrorism Europe (TATE) website

In this week’s episode, we ask why media reporting on terrorism matters, discussing the research on media coverage of terrorist attacks and suicides, the potentially harmful effects on society, and what guidelines can be put in place to ensure more responsible media reporting, including on social media.

Join Archie Macfarlane as he speaks with Dr. Brigitte Naderer, Prof. Thomas Niederkrotenthaler and Dr. Benedikt Till from the Medical University of Vienna.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

Resources:

• Short-Term Effects of Media Reports on Terrorism That Are Consistent vs. Not Consistent with Media Recommendations on Mass Shootings: A Randomized Controlled Trial
• Recommendations for Reporting on Mass Shootings
• Tech Against Terrorism Europe (TATE) website

In this week’s episode, we discuss the Great Replacement Theory (GRT), a conspiracy theory which asserts that there is an orchestrated plan to replace native European and North American populations with non-white immigrants. We unpack why this narrative has become central to the worldview of the global far-right, how it has spread online; and to what extent these beliefs have infilitrated the mainstream.

Join Archie Macfarlane as he speaks with Jacob Davey, the Head of Research & Policy for Far-right and Hate Movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Jacob’s work involves mapping far-right extremism and the development of new tools for tracking hate speech globally.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

In this week's episode, we discuss the challenges and complexities of content moderation in the online space, asking who gets to decide what we say online and why. We situate this debate in the context of tech platforms facing ever-increasing pressure to moderate content that is considered harmful or otherwise undesirable.

We delve into the mechanics of how content is moderated, focusing on the evolving roles and responsibilities of tech companies and governments in determining acceptable content. Decisions to deplatform individuals or groups, even when their content is not explicitly illegal, raise questions about the legitimacy of tech companies as arbiters of public dialogue.

Join Archie Macfarlane as he speaks with Alastair Reed, Associate Professor at the Cyber Threats Research Centre (CYTREC) at Swansea University and former Director of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in the Hague.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

In this week’s episode, we discuss the state of extremism in the Nordic region. We focus on Sweden as the long-term epicentre of regional far-right extremism, and explore the Nordic Resistance Movement’s (NRM) evolution. We also discuss the role of online platforms in amplifying NRM’s reach and radicalising supporters to violence and what can be done to counter this.

Join Archie Macfarlane as he speaks with Morgan Finnsiö, a journalist, researcher and educator at the anti-racist foundation Expo, which aims to defend democratic society against the threat posed by racism.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

In this week’s episode, we delve into extremist manifestos and how they’ve been used by perpetrators of violent attacks to promote their ideology and inspire further violence and hatred. We cover the evolution of manifestos as a terrorist tactic, discuss different authors and styles, and focus on the role of the internet in amplifying their reach and impact.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to J.M. Berger,  a Senior Research Fellow for the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, the author of four critically acclaimed books, and a research and policy consultant to tech companies and U.S. government agencies.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.  

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week’s episode explores conspiracy theories, and their potency as tools of persuasion. We examine how conspiratorial narratives are common across extremist propaganda throughout history and their role in justifying and motivating violence towards certain groups. We also discuss how the internet has influenced the narrative power of conspiracies and consider the challenges AI and Large Language Models (LLM) present for tackling extreme conspiracies online. 

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Dr Stephane Baele, Professor of International Relations at UCLouvain (Belgium), and Honorary Associate Professor of Security & Political Violence at the University of Exeter, UK.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic.

This week’s episode focuses on the ways in which gender identity is discussed and expressed within different segments of the online far-right. We investigate the #tradwives movement - a social media trend used by far-right supporters to promote traditional gender roles, discuss its ideological roots, and consider the challenges for moderating such content.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Ninian Frenguelli, a PhD candidate at Swansea University studying gender in the online extreme right.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week’s episode focuses on Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K), a regional affiliate of Islamic State primarily active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We discuss the group in the context of the Taliban takeover two years ago, assessing the threat posed by the group to the region and to the West. We also focus on IS-K’s online activity and the increasingly prominent role the affiliate plays in IS propaganda, recruitment, and operational output.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to two members of the Tech Against Terrorism Open Source-Intelligence (OSINT) team: Arthur Bradley, the OSINT Manager with a background in security intelligence and specific expertise on terrorist propaganda, and Louise Meloy, an OSINT analyst who has previously worked for the EU Commission and NATO on security policy as well as in the private sector as an intel analyst.

TAT analysis: After the Taliban Takeover: How Islamic State-Khorasan Are Exploiting the Online Ecosystem and Projecting the Threat

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we're discussing the unique psychological risks that exist for those working in the field of online counterterrorism. We provide practical guidance for identifying, understanding and combating trauma and other mental health issues associated with exposure to terrorist material, and explore the roles and responsibilities of both practitioner and organisation in mitigating these impacts to welfare.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Stevie Voogt, Director of People & Culture at Moonshot, a social enterprise working to end online harms. And Fiona Dunkley, a consultant senior psychotherapist, author and founder of FD Consultants, a network of trauma specialist therapists offering psychosocial support to people exposed to traumatic material in their work.

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

Resources:

• Strategies for Researchers Analysing Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content (TVEC)
• Resource list on researcher welfare
• Protecting Your Mental Health: Vicarious Trauma Support
• Exposure to Traumatic Material: 3 Stages of Support
• Protecting Staff from Vicarious Trauma 

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we're investigating the online activity of Islamic State (IS), an Islamist terrorist organisation renowned for its highly sophisticated media strategy and exploitation of the internet to disseminate its propaganda and recruit members. 

We'll be examining how IS and its supporter networks have evolved in their use of the internet, what platforms and technologies they exploit, and the techniques they use to avoid tech platform moderation. We’ll also touch on the work being carried out by Tech Against Terrorism to monitor and combat the group’s online activities.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Meili Criezis, a Graduate Fellow at the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), and Raphael Gluck, Co-Founder of JihadOScope, an organisation that monitors Jihadist activity across the internet.

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

You can find Tech Against Terrorism’s ‘State of Play: Trends in Terrorist and Violent Extremist Use of the Internet 2022’ report here. 

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re investigating the use of podcasts by extremist actors, a growing and concerning trend, which, over the last decade or so, has seen extremists leveraging this medium to spread their ideology, recruit followers and network with like minded individuals. 

Our expert guests expose how extremist groups and networks on the far-right have created an alternative media ecosystem that is reinforcing and normalising hateful ideologies, fringe ideas, and conspiratorial narratives. We also discuss how the ease of creating and distributing audio content has allowed these actors to regularly produce content that reaches a global audience and the challenges in moderating this content.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Dr Megan Squire, Deputy Director for Data Analytics and OSINT (open source intelligence) at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and Bjørn Ihler, co-founder and CEO of Glitterpill and Director of the Khalifa Ihler Institute, a global peacebuilding foundation.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.  

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re exploring the role of the internet in the mainstreaming of radical ideas, which are increasingly infiltrating politics and popular culture. We also get a deeper insight into online extremist communities to understand what’s driving these ideas and how radicalisation is occurring.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Dr Julia Ebner, a Senior Resident Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), specialising in far-right extremism, reciprocal radicalisation, conspiracy myths and terrorism prevention. Julia is an award-winning and best-selling author of several books including:

The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism

Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists

Going Mainstream: How Extremists are Taking Over

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re diving deeper into the nexus between gaming and extremism, exploring how gaming culture, storylines and symbols are being appropriated by extremist actors, and unpacking the concept of ‘identity fusion’: the phenomenon whereby players emotionally and psychologically merge their real-life identity with that of their in-game avatar or character. 

Our guests also discuss how the growing immersiveness of online games and the increasingly blurred line between reality and virtual reality might impact radicalisation processes, and touch on how stakeholders can get ahead of this threat.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Dr Rachel Kowert, a research psychologist and Research Director of gaming and mental health organisation Take This, and Dr Ashton Kingdon, a lecturer of Criminology at the University of Southampton. 

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

To find out more about the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), visit https://extremismandgaming.org/.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re exploring the interaction between gaming and extremism.  We discuss the growing misuse of gaming platforms by extremist actors and consider why gaming communities are at risk of fostering concerning attitudes towards misogyny, racism, and even violent extremism. We address the threat to children and young people, the challenges and opportunities for policymakers, gaming companies and other stakeholders, and finally, what the future of gaming could mean in the context of extremism.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Dr Jessica White, a Senior Research Fellow in RUSI’s Terrorism and Conflict group, and Galen Lamphere-Englund, a Violent Extremism and Strategic Communications Researcher and Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

To find out more about the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), visit https://extremismandgaming.org/.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re exploring Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban - an Islamist terrorist organisation known for its violent activities and ideological alignment with the Afghan Taliban. 

In the episode, we discuss TTP’s evolution, its recent resurgence, and how it’s using propaganda to further its strategic goals. We’ll also unpack TTP’s online activities and how its official media arm has significantly enhanced its operations since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, playing an important role in the group’s resurgence

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Dr Amira Jadoon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Clemson University, and Dr Antonio Giustozzi, a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

Tech Against Terrorism’s Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP) has recently added TTP to its Inclusion Policy, alerting its official content to tech platforms. You can find our blog explaining the reasons why here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re discussing the rapidly evolving phenomenon of deepfakes powered by generative AI technology. We explore how deepfakes are being manipulated for malign purposes, including by terrorist and violent extremist actors. And we consider how this threat might develop as technology improves and what this means for terrorist propaganda, online disinformation, and global security. We also ask what tech platforms, the media and policymakers should be doing to get ahead of this threat.  

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Daniel Byman, Senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. And Chris Meserole, Director of the Brookings Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative and a fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. 

You can read a transcript of this episode here. 

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re exploring the use of memes in the context of terrorism and violent extremism. Throughout the episode, we consider why memes are being used by terrorist and violent extremist actors, how they’re spread online and why their meaning is often hidden to ordinary internet users. We also look at some of the challenges this poses for tech platform moderators trying to counter their spread and what tech companies can do to address this issue. 

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Arthur Bradley, OSINT Manager at Tech Against Terrorism. We’re also joined by Blyth Crawford, an Analyst at Moonshot and Research Fellow and PhD Candidate in War Studies, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College London and Moustafa Ayad, Executive Director for Africa, Middle East and Asia, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). 

You can read a transcript of this episode here.  

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

This week, we’re looking into the contested term “borderline content”, using antisemitism as a case study for how terrorist and violent extremist (TVE) actors sanitise extremist content. We learn more about what borderline content is in practice, its strategic use for TVE actors, and what makes it so difficult to moderate. We also consider the potential consequences of allowing borderline content to spread on mainstream social media platforms and discuss what tech platforms and policymakers should be doing to tackle it.

Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Isabelle Arnson, Senior Policy Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism  and Head of Tech Against Terrorism Europe (TATE). And Hannah Rose, a PhD Candidate in War Studies at King's College London and a Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR).

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

If you want to find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic.