Contextual
Resources
Once a government or tech company develops a definition of terrorism or violent extremism, it can be difficult to know how to apply these definitions to the variety of ways that terrorism and violent extremism manifests internationally and across online spaces.
This section of the site aims to highlight contextual resources on themes related to applying definitions to the online space. GIFCT funds the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) to bring forward actionable insights from experts and practitioners around the world to better inform and give context to tech companies, governments, practitioners and other stakeholders in this field. Insights are curated here under context-based themes.
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Platform & Product Type/Focus
Social Media
Platform & Product Type/Focus
The internet is not a homogenous space. There is significant variation in what platforms or tools online do, and subsequently an equally significant variation in how a platform might be exploited and the signal available to a platform to detect such exploitation. Experts continue to track the different types of platforms and tools being exploited by terrorists and violent extremist, looking at how and why a group or individual might use a product. While some platforms are more global in usage, others are specific to trends in regions or particular types of violent extremist groups.
Social Media
As some of the most user facing and interactive platforms online, social media sites have been at the forefront of tracking violent extremist and terrorist trends online. Relevant research focusing on social media presents useful explorations of specific platforms.
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27th March 2026“No shadowbans. No algorithmic games”: The Exploitation of UpScrolled by the pro-Islamic State Online EcosystemEleonora Ristuccia and Grazia Ludovica Giardini
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25th March 2026Rapid Growth, Emerging Risks: Far Right Violent Extremist Content on UpScrolledKye Allen
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11th March 2026Inside the Discord Server: Echo Chambers and the Spread of Gen-Z RadicalisationMaria Remiro Soriano and Miguel Gomez Catalan
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16th February 2026Extremist Content Curation: Moderation Challenges on Pinterest and Means to Move ForwardAlessandro Bolpagni and Grazia Ludovica Giardini
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16th December 2025Digital Weaponisation: Taliban Propaganda and Narrative Warfare on XOsama Ahmad
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13th August 2025Sovereign Solutions: Unpacking the Criminal History and Digital Footprint of an Extremist SellerJoseph Stabile
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02nd July 2025Playing with Hate: How Far-Right Extremists Use Minecraft to Gamify RadicalisationGagandeep
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06th May 2025“Everyone Will Remember Jamie”: A Post-Adolescence Reflection on Online MisogynyErin Stoner
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16th December 2024Telegram Homeschooling: Maintaining A Salafi-Jihadist Oriented Echo ChamberMeili Criezis