Countering Violent Extremism Online and Offline

Terrorism and the Internet

“…(). As valuable as these data have been, Szmania and Fincher () point out that such data also have obvious limitations. As Sageman (: 572) has argued, it would be extremely helpful if the intelligence community would do a better job of sharing information about terrorist plots with researchers in the academic community.…”

“…It is also worth emphasizing that much of the current research on terrorism within the academic community is based on unclassified open-source data such as those used by Gill et al (2017). As valuable as these data have been, Szmania and Fincher (2017) point out that such data also have obvious limitations. As Sageman (2014: 572) has argued, it would be extremely helpful if the intelligence community would do a better job of sharing information about terrorist plots with researchers in the academic community.…”

“…This, of course, is the main thinking behind situational crime prevention approaches. Nevertheless, as Susan Szmania and Phelix Fincher (, this issue) note, not all situational crime‐prevention approaches are easy to implement within the virtual realm where large social media organizations may resist law enforcement efforts to identify radical extremists on their platforms. In response to these challenges, four Internet giants—Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and Google—recently announced plans to set up a shared database to help them identify and remove content linked to terrorist organizations from the Internet (Mullen, ).…”

“…Similarly, lone actors required more online learning presumably because they lacked the human intelligence available in larger cells or groups. In their policy essay, Szmania and Fincher () point out that perpetrators used the Internet in cases where they were targeting potential landmarks that might have been more challenging or risky to assess offline. The authors argue that these activities raise challenges for authorities because they have the potential for blurring lines between preventative action and criminal investigation.…”

Countering Extremists on Social Media: Challenges for Strategic Communication and Content Moderation

“…Extremists exploit social media platforms, and the Internet more generally, for a range of reasons; from spreading hateful narratives and propaganda to financing, recruitment, and sharing operational information (Gill et al, 2017). How best to counter such activity has recently been the focus of an emerging field of academic and policy debate (Aly, Macdonald, Jarvis, & Chen, 2016;Braddock & Horgan, 2016;Davies, Neudecker, Ouellet, Bouchard, & Ducol, 2016;Helmus, 2018;Szmania & Fincher, 2017). While many extremists end up barred from social media at the discretion of hosting platforms (Citron, 2018;Gillespie, 2018), often in discussion with government and law enforcement (Brocato, 2015;Brown & Pearson, 2018), significant attention is being paid to countermessaging and other strategic communication techniques as potential responses (Bertram, 2016;Beutel et al, 2016;Braddock & Horgan, 2016;Briggs & Feve, 2013;Brown & Marway, 2018;Cherney, 2016;Eerten & van Doosje, 2019).…”