Social media and terrorism in the Asia Pacific

The digital augmentation of extremism: Reviewing and guiding online extremism research from a sociotechnical perspective

“…The sociotechnical perspective of online extremism also requires structural changes to successful CVE operations. Researchers ought to help governments draft regulations for platform providers to transparently share data that enable human oversight (Droogan & Waldek, 2019) and independent research (Cottee & Cunliffe, 2020) while protecting personal user privacy (TAT, 2021c) and avoiding empowering extremist organizations by making their content available (13.2). In return, research could also seek to inform governmental agencies on structural changes (e.g., specialized task forces, collaborations with local communities) that are suited to counter extremist movements online setup (13.4) (Droogan et al, 2018).…”

Feeling Terrified?

“…Digital media is increasingly understood as more of a catalyst or facilitator, rather than as a simple gateway. The Internet and social media certainly provide a host of previously unavailable opportunities for terrorists and violent extremists to promote, advertise, and recruit (Droogan and Waldek 2019), but these opportunities affect different people in radically different ways, with the Internet providing pathways into violence for some, but only in combination with a range of other personal and social factors (Gill et al 2017;Scrivens, Gill, and Conway 2020). Young people we interviewed were usually aware of media stories of people who had supposedly been radicalised online, but understood that cases such as these were rare, and that factors other than simple exposure to violent and extreme content were involved.…”