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.
Filters
Tactical Exploitation of Online Services
Memes
Tactical Exploitation of Online Services
Online terrorism and violent extremism comes in many forms and platforms are equally exploited in a variety of ways. Terrorist and violent extremist groups and individuals, like average users, use a mixture of platforms to further their aims. This cross-platform approach facilitates in storing content, holding private or confidential conversations, e-commerce for buying and selling goods as well as fundraising, recruitment, and the amplification of propaganda and messaging to the public. These signals, trends and adversarial shifts around this exploitation are highlighted by global experts.
Memes
Electronic ethnographic research reveals that the appeal of humourous content, including memes, has been exploited by terrorist and extremist groups online. Along with the grim innovation of performing gamified violence intended for consumption by social media audiences, the attackers’ use a unique set of memes in their manifestoes and overall online communication. In particular, the Christchurch attacker also called upon others to “create memes, post memes, and spread memes. Memes have done more for the ethno-nationalist movement than any manifesto.”
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20th March 2024‘It’s Over! White People are Finished’: Accelerationist Memes using Generative AI on 4chan’s ‘/pol‘Joshua Bowes
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15th February 2024A Deadly Trifecta: Disinformation Networks, AI Memetic Warfare, and DeepfakesAchi Mishra and Vignesh Karumbaya
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13th November 2023For the Lulz?: AI-generated Subliminal Hate is a New Challenge in the Fight Against Online HarmOlivier Cauberghs
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27th September 2023Milk Parties and Soyjaks: Understanding The Alt-Right’s Metapolitical Appropriation of MilkElisabeth Moerking
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14th June 2023Remove Kebab: The Transnational Circulation of Far-Right Memes and The Memory of the Yugoslav WarsKatarina Ristić
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25th August 2022Humour in Jihadi Rhetoric: A Comparative Analysis of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, TTP, and the TalibanWeeda Mehran
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28th July 2022The Writing on the (Facebook) Wall: A Revised Assessment of Posting and Support for Violence by Pro-Rittenhouse Meme CreatorsHampton Stall and Hari Prasad
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18th July 2022Examining White Supremacist and Militant Accelerationism Trends on TikTokAbbie Richards