Digital Dispatches Archive

18 Jan 2022
Australia’s Indecisiveness Turns Djokovic into Anti-vaxx Martyr
In this Dispatch, Elise Thomas looks at how Australia's anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown movements responded to the recent Djokovic saga.
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13 Jan 2022
Why Anti-Vaxxers, QAnon Influencers and White Nationalists are Flocking to Substack
This Dispatch explores how users who have been banned from platforms like Youtube and Twitter are able to freely promote and profit from their content on Substack.
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21 Dec 2021
Why did the January 6 Rioters Plot in Plain Sight?
As the Select Committee continues to excavate the mountain of evidence relating to the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, many have wondered why the rioters in the Capitol that day went to such lengths to document and broadcast their own crimes.
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9 Dec 2021
The Challenge of Post-Organisational Violent Extremism and Terrorism
This Dispatch explains the concept of 'post-organisational' violent extremism and terrorism, and why tech companies, counter-terrorism practitioners and policymakers face challenges in how to respond to it.
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7 Dec 2021
Online Extremism Index: Slovakia
This Dispatch examines the online threat landscape in Slovakia; one which appears increasingly hybridised as polarising and extreme content emanates from a broad spectrum of actors.
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2 Dec 2021
The Growth of the Left-Wing ‘Gunstagram’
The left-wing 'Gunstagram’ is an emerging, US-based firearms community on Instagram. This dispatch looks at what has driven its growth.
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30 Nov 2021
Anwendung eines Algorithmus zur Erkennung von deutschsprachigen antisemitischen Inhalten auf YouTube: Hintergrund und Methodik
Unser aktuelles Projekt zur Klassifizierung deutschsprachiger YouTube-Kommentare soll einen Beitrag zur Forschung und öffentlichen Debatte zu Natural Language Processing (NLP) leisten. Insbesondere soll es auf die mit dieser Methode verbundenen Lücken und die Notwendigkeit von manueller Überprüfung und Kontrolle aufmerksam machen.
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25 Nov 2021
Online Extremism Index: Kenya
In this ‘Online Extremism Index’ Dispatches, ISD analyses polarising content and hate speech online in Kenya ahead of the country’s 2022 general elections.
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19 Nov 2021
How Mobilisation by Climate Sceptic Actors on Facebook During COP26 Undermined the Summit
ISD researchers tracked posts about climate change produced by reliable sources on Facebook alongside posts produced by climate sceptic actors.
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16 Nov 2021
The Threat of Conspiratorial COVID-Sceptic Extremism
Elise Thomas observes the move towards extremism amongst Australian and New Zealand anti-lockdown movements, explaining why referring to them simply as ‘far-right’ misses important pieces of the story.
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In this Dispatch, Elise Thomas looks at how Australia's anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown movements responded to the recent Djokovic saga.

Person using laptop with graphic depictions of engagement, e.g. emails, friend requests and likes.

This Dispatch explores how users who have been banned from platforms like Youtube and Twitter are able to freely promote and profit from their content on Substack.

A man wearing a black suit and a red superhero cape stares out at a large city from a atop a tall building.

As the Select Committee continues to excavate the mountain of evidence relating to the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, many have wondered why the rioters in the Capitol that day went to such lengths to document and broadcast their own crimes.

The Hungarian flag over a graphic of wooden figures connected by a network of lines.

This Dispatch examines the specifics of Hungarian organisations most in connection with an international ultra-conservative network working to undermine women's and LGBTQ's sexual and reproductive health rights.

This Dispatch examines the global network of ultra-conservative organisations working to undermine the rights of sexual minorities and women, and the key actors in this network.

Image with X-effect of person wearing gas mask

This Dispatch explains the concept of 'post-organisational' violent extremism and terrorism, and why tech companies, counter-terrorism practitioners and policymakers face challenges in how to respond to it.

Map of Europe with small Slovakian flag pinned in Slovakia

This Dispatch examines the online threat landscape in Slovakia; one which appears increasingly hybridised as polarising and extreme content emanates from a broad spectrum of actors.

Graphic of a black and white US flag, where the stripes are made up of silhouettes of rifles.

The left-wing 'Gunstagram’ is an emerging, US-based firearms community on Instagram. This dispatch looks at what has driven its growth.

Graphic of computer with YouTube icon and German flag

Our recent project classifying YouTube comments in German seeks to contribute to research and public debate on natural language processing.

Unser aktuelles Projekt zur Klassifizierung deutschsprachiger YouTube-Kommentare soll einen Beitrag zur Forschung und öffentlichen Debatte zu Natural Language Processing (NLP) leisten. Insbesondere soll es auf die mit dieser Methode verbundenen Lücken und die Notwendigkeit von manueller Überprüfung und Kontrolle aufmerksam machen.

Speech podium with anonymous suited man, with Kenyan flag in background

In this ‘Online Extremism Index’ Dispatches, ISD analyses polarising content and hate speech online in Kenya ahead of the country’s 2022 general elections.

Despite being banned from Facebook, the pro-Russian disinformation outlet News Front has resumed many of its operations.

Graphic of hand reaching out of social media post holding magnet to attract engagement

ISD researchers tracked posts about climate change produced by reliable sources on Facebook alongside posts produced by climate sceptic actors.

An overview of ISD’s pioneering new research which provides a digital snapshot of the rapidly shifting online Salafi ecosystem across social media and its intersection with Gen-Z identities.

Elise Thomas observes the move towards extremism amongst Australian and New Zealand anti-lockdown movements, explaining why referring to them simply as ‘far-right’ misses important pieces of the story.

Despite Facebook’s claims of continuous enforcement, it appears that some well-known actors are returning to the platform again and again using largely the same tactics.

ISD researchers investigate a set of unchecked videos and accounts that are promoting anti-vaccine tropes on YouTube - some of which have been on the platform for more than 15 years.

TikTok is failing to tag almost 60% of COVID-19 vaccine-related content on its platform, leaving users exposed to often unverified and harmful content.

ISD researchers monitoring misinformation analysed the rise of the 12 medical professionals spreading misinformation on Facebook.

New joint research from ISD and VU analyses the reciprocal nature of far-left and far-right activity on Twitter between 2016-2021.

Following the withdrawal of NATO and Western troops from Afghanistan in mid-August, there has been a visible spike in German-language anti-migration discourse on social media.

A new ISD report details the growth of the 'climate lockdown' conspiracy narrative, which claims that government overreach will be enacted under the pretext of climate change to strip people of civil liberties.

New ISD research draws on analysis of white supremacist chats on the encrypted messaging application Telegram to explore the complex relationship white supremacists have with the military.

Elise Thomas explains why anti-vaccination literature is being pushed to the top of search results at many online book retailers, beating out evidence-based information.

ISD analysts monitored discussion on various online platforms in the lead up to the German federal election. This Dispatch outlines their findings.

Elise Thomas explains how websites play a central role in the digital presence of many extreme-right organisations and communities.

ISD is pioneering a series of efforts to further explore the intersection between gaming and extremism.

The Strong Cities Network's Beirut Office, Lama Awad, Ghida El-Assaad, and Nicolas Gholam, examine the country’s approach to P/CVE and the many challenges it now faces in light of recent events.

With the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks upon us, Eric Rosand writes for the RESOLVE Network about the growing relevance of cities in preventing and countering violent extremism.

Conspiracy-focused anti-lockdown social media groups in Australia are experiencing a period of rapid growth, fuelled by widespread public health restrictions.

An overview of ISD's upcoming The Future of Extremism series: an ambitious programme of data-driven publications, thought-leading analysis and public events focused on the next generation of extremism challenges and responses.

ISD is one of over 50 co-signatories on an open letter calling upon EU policy-makers to amend the draft EU Digital Services Act to tackle disinformation head-on.

The explosive growth of digital technologies around the world is opening new potential domains for conflict.

This dispatch features an excerpt from 'Hatescape An In-Depth Analysis of Extremism and Hate Speech on TikTok', a new ISD report that aims to provide an in-depth analysis on the state of extremism and hate on TikTok.

As the German Federal Election draws closer, far-right actors in Germany are using the same tactics to undermine the vote as their counterparts across the Atlantic did in 2020.

The Institute for Economics and Peace's blog, Vision of Humanity, takes a look at the rise in right-wing violence and the challenges it presents to current counterterrorism efforts.

The 2019 Christchurch attacks stand as an instructive example of an increasingly international far-right. This Dispatch examines online extremism in New Zealand, drawing on ISD research conducted throughout 2020 which provides a data-driven snapshot of New Zealand’s online extremist ecosystem.

As part of the Strong Cities Network’s programme of ongoing research, ISD analysts mapped and analysed the online extremist landscape in Bangladesh. This Dispatch looks at their findings.

It has been a decade since the 2011 terror attacks in Oslo, considered by many to be a “turning point” in far right extremist mobilisation. This Dispatch outlines the ways in which the ideas, tactics and dynamics underpinning the attack have come to shape one of the most persistent and dangerous terror threats we are seeing today.

This Dispatch outlines seven of the key takeaways from a new ISD report that documents the findings of a study tracking the online ecosystems used by right-wing extremists in Canada in 2020.

ISD analysts identified a number of pro-CCP accounts spreading distorted research on Twitter, with the seeming intention being to lambast one of China’s oldest rivals: Japan. This dispatch outlines just how legitimate, pre-existing research can be manipulated and repackaged in furtherance of geopolitical goals.

Ciaran O'Connor writes about how TikTok Sounds are being used to create and popularise misleading and harmful COVID-19 related content on the platform, in particular discouraging people against getting vaccinated.

This dispatch highlights how, in Czechia and Slovakia, character assassination seems to be the most successful strategy used by those seeking to disrupt and polarise online debate on climate change.

This dispatch examines the most widely shared internet domains amongst online anti-vaccination communities in Germany. It illustrates the high level of influence Austrian and Swiss disinformation outlets appear to hold in the German-speaking online sphere of conspiracy narratives.

This article highlights the key findings from a new ISD research report that provides a snapshot of the different online communities involved in the promotion of hate and disinformation targeting refugees and the migration sector in 2020.

In Hungary, government-affiliated media is critical in shaping public opinion. This dispatch looks at how national and local government-affiliated media outlets on Facebook have portrayed the issue of climate change over the past two years.

In Poland, climate change is largely absent from the online discussion around coal mining and the energy sector, which is instead dominated by economic and security arguments in favour of, and in opposition to, the coal industry. This dispatch highlights the key trends in such discussion, as well as the types of messaging different actors employ.

The social media uproar around the Turów mine dispute illustrates how Eurosceptic beliefs and suspicions about Germany were weaponised in attempt to drive polarisation and delay climate action in Poland.

The social media debate around a new climate communications project by German broadcaster WDR provides a useful case study that illustrates how climate communication efforts by public broadcasters are received - especially in the lead up to an election.

An investigation by ISD suggests a shift in seemingly coordinated pro-CCP network tactics - one involving real, genuine human Twitter influencers acting as advocates for pro-CCP narratives.

New ISD research presents a data-driven snapshot of the proliferation of COVID-19-related online antisemitic content in French and German on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram.

This Dispatch looks at the links between the largest online archive of Islamic State materials and a real-world IS case. It raises a set of policy considerations for managing online contingents of movements like the Islamic State and disrupting the creation and management of such archives.

New analysis by ISD and CTC focuses on Islamic State-affiliated content stored on digital archives, and the method of creating hubs of information to preserve such materials. Such research reveals one small part of the movement’s ongoing efforts to document its path to stay relevant in the future.

New analysis by researchers at ISD and the Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities at Victoria University analyses the interplay between far-right and far-left groups in the state of Victoria, Australia on the alt-tech social networking platform Gab.

In the online world, conspiracies and misinformation are often used to downplay the severity of the coronavirus, undermine efforts to tackle its spread and promote anxieties about the vaccine. This briefing examines how Dutch communities on Facebook promoted COVID-19 vaccine misinformation throughout April.

Part II of 'Climate is the New Front in the Culture Wars' highlights an entirely different way in which green politics can be appropriated by extremists - to advance a nationalist view around the sacredness of land.

The far right has stoked up fear of immigration, elites, and multiculturalism. Now, extremists are turning their attention online to the alleged threat of the green agenda – with an eye to discrediting COP-26.

The Institute for Economics and Peace take a look at some changes in Positive Peace over the last decade.

The role of algorithms in boosting conspiracy theories and radicalisation has been brought into sharp focus over the past year. Using Amazon’s book sales platform, Elise Thomas illustrates how such problems with algorithmic recommendation extend far beyond social media platforms.

ISD analysts conducted a network analysis of the clusters of Twitter accounts driving climate-related debate during the German state elections. This article reveals their findings.

As part of their ongoing monitoring of hateful speech in France, ISD researchers analysed anti-Muslim discussion in France on Twitter and Facebook. This Dispatch outlines their findings and points to the need for an intersectional analysis of anti-Muslim discourse.

New research by ISD examines how Telegram has evolved among far-right groups and supporters in Ireland, moving from a fringe platform to become one of the main online spaces used by the far-right.

Conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines are rampant across Arabic-language Facebook entities. Recent analysis by ISD has found connections to dominant COVID-19 vaccine misinformation narratives and influencers tied to the Middle East and North Africa's geo-politics.

Ahead of the German state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz, ISD analysts examined climate-related discussion on social media. The goal was to interrogate how social media drives climate-related debate during an election period,.

A brief look at some of the defining numbers of Syrian civil war by the The Institute for Economics and Peace.

This article looks at the key topics of discussion within a network of anti-climate change communities on Facebook and Twitter in the UK from 25 February 2021- 3 March 2021.

For International Women’s Day, we look at how the implications of online gender-based abuse and disinformation threaten gender equality in a post-COVID world.

In Canada, protests against COVID-19 restrictions fuelled by conspiracies and misinformation have generated anger and hostility. This briefing takes a closer look at Canadian communities who were promoting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation throughout February.

Elise Thomas discusses how Facebook’s decision to block Australian users from sharing or viewing news content on the platform created a short-lived experiment as to what happens to disinformation and conspiracy theories in the absence of journalism on social media platforms.

This Dispatches post examines how the "Great Reset" conspiracy is growing among online communities in the Netherlands, and how the leader of a Dutch right-wing populist party has played a key role in mainstreaming it.

In recent months, clashes at anti-lockdown protests have shown how online vitriol can lead to offline violence. We take a look at the nature of some of this online vitriol in Ireland throughout January - and find that Irish COVID-19 vaccine misinformation communities on Facebook are on the rise.

The same social media tools being used to inform the public about COVID-19 vaccinations are also being used to misinform people on a massive scale. Throughout 2021, Digital Dispatches will examine key COVID-19 vaccine misinformation themes in different countries.

A new case study by ISD provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the broader disinformation ecosystem and sheds light on the long tail of state-linked online assets.

Cécile Guerin writes about how the lines between the two sides of her life - as a researcher at ISD and a yoga teacher in her spare time - have become increasingly blurred over the past year.

As critically important vaccination programs roll out in countries around the world, it is imperative that we think about mitigating the potential security risks posed by conspiracy theorists to vaccination sites.

This is the final piece of a three-part Digital Dispatches series that looks back at how a year of online extremist mobilisation precipitated a violent assault on the heart of American democracy on January 6 2021.

This is the second in a three-part Digital Dispatches series that looks back at how a year of online extremist mobilisation precipitated a violent assault on the heart of American democracy on January 6 2021.

This is the first in a three-part Digital Dispatches series that looks back at how a year of online extremist mobilisation precipitated a violent assault on the heart of American democracy on January 6 2021.

Donald Trump’s use of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric as a means through which to govern and campaign is longstanding, but it arguably reached its apex with his 2020 re-election bid – the consequences of which are both severe and growing.

The importance of pushing back against misleading and false narratives in their early stages was made clear in the midst of the 2020 US presidential election, when efforts to debunk mainstreamed voter fraud narratives instead ran the risk of amplifying the narratives further.

New research by ISD tracks far-right narratives from the US, France and Germany, looking at how such narratives gain traction in domestic mainstream media and exploring if and how narratives move from the far-right’s online media ecosystem to different geographical and political contexts.

How do the far-right and far-left discuss each other on Facebook? How do narratives about the other side of the political spectrum shape the online activity of these groups? An analysis of the far-right and far-left Facebook ecosystem in Australia looks at how central discussion of the ‘other side’ is to each movement.

The Western Balkans faces twin challenges from online extremism where international extremist narratives target the region through online platforms while its histories and geopolitics are appropriated to justify extremist actions and narratives around the world.

When Donald Trump retweeted a post claiming that Dominion Voting Systems had partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative to deliberately switch ballots intended for Trump to Joe Biden, a narrative of election rigging began that would spread online, and which will likely resurface again.

A tweet baselessly claimed that Dominion Voting Systems had partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative to switch ballots intended for Trump to Joe Biden. It was the peak of a narrative combining technology and corruption concerns with the need to explain Trump’s increasingly apparent election defeat.

ISIS continues to deploy social media recruitment strategies when opportunities arise. In an effort to understand each social media platform’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of striking terrorist content off their platforms, ISD timed platforms' takedowns of content egregiously violating their policies.

On 31 May 2020, President Trump tweeted that the far-left network Antifa would be designated a “Terrorist Organization.” ISD researchers monitored the reactions to Trump’s tweet by far-right actors online.

ISD researchers conducted a long-term analysis of conversations around the loose network of far-left organisations known as Antifa between January 2019 and June 2020.

In Part I, we looked at how the Proud Boys online presence reacted to the sudden and widespread exposure that the group received following Trump’s mention of them in the first US Presidential debate. Now, we look at the narratives and methods used in their responses.

Mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming increasingly active in removing extremist content from their platforms. But what happens when a major figure such as the US President mentions a hate group in a Presidential debate?

In early June, troll groups on 4chan staged a series of online raids against Black Lives Matter activists on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, ultimately stifling their ability to coordinate activities.

ISD found that conspiratorial narratives on Facebook and Twitter about billionaire philanthropist George Soros rose in tandem with the George Floyd protests that strafed the US in May.

In the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests, a video emerged and a false narrative took hold: an innocent man had been beaten - some said to death - for defending his business.

Simple techniques such as alternative hashtag spellings can circumvent TikTok's measures to combat the spread of QAnon content. TikTok must do more to combat the problem – and urgently.