Role of mainstream and social media in promoting / countering extremist communication, and in recruitment.

Background

Crimes such as homicide and theft, and drugs such as heroin and cocaine have always been of public concern, and there has been a recent focus on areas such as child sexual abuse, modern slavery, new psychoactive substances, online fraud, and online indecent images of children.

Next steps

Get in touch with research@homeoffice.gov.uk

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Areas of research interest relevant to the Home Office GOVUK

Related UKRI funded projects

  • Predicting online radicalisation

    RESEARCH CONTEXT An estimated 25,000 foreign fighters have been recruited to Islamic State (IS) from over 100 counties around the world. While shocking in itself, this reflects only the militant end-product of the radic...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Bath

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to investigate how and why people develop allegiance to extremist groups through communicating online, which directly addresses the question of the role of mainstream and social media in promoting/countering extremist communication and recruitment.

  • Social Media narratives: addressing extremism in middle age

    Conspiracy theories, misinformation and extremism online is a growing concern to governments. Extreme political narratives have been rising across Europe and these narratives influence mainstream political discourses and...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project directly addresses the role of social media in promoting extremist communication and recruitment, and provides counter-narratives and tools to counter such narratives.

  • Covid-19: What are the Drivers of the Islamophobic Infodemic Communications on social media

    There is a direct gap in understanding how conspiracy theories and miscommunication on social media sites is being used to create a Covid-19 'infodemic'. This is particularly relevant in the context of Muslim communities...

    Funded by: COVID

    Lead research organisation: Birmingham City University

  • Real-Time Detection of Violence and Extremism from Social Media

    The explosive use of social media tools in recent years has turned them into a double-edged sword. On one hand, social media is viewed as a positive factor in Middle East revolutions. On the other hand, violence events s...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: Aston University

  • 'Extremism and Its Support: Developing More Effective Policy Responses'

    Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in extremism, though mainly al-Qaeda or 'AQ'-inspired terrorism. This emphasis on preventing violent extremism (PVE), and countering processes of radicalization within Musl...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Nottingham

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project directly addresses the role of mainstream and social media in promoting extremist communication and recruitment, providing a comprehensive analysis.

  • Youth Extremisms: Understanding across Ideological and Religious Contexts (Research Seminar Series)

    The proposed seminar series builds on the experience of the co-investigators in organising the ESRC Research Seminar Series on Right Wing Extremism in Europe (2014-2015). It arises from the recognition of the potential b...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Manchester

  • Raven: to Locate and Identify Online Extremist Multimedia

    Exploitation of online social networks by terrorists and hate groups for propaganda, recruiting, and fund raising is a widely recognised national security problem. We propose an automated intelligent web crawling system ...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON

  • Centre for Cyberhate Research & Policy: Real-Time Scalable Methods & Infrastructure for Modelling the Spread of Cyberhate on Social Media

    The UK Government's Hate Crime Action Plan (Home Office 2016) stresses the need to tackle hate speech on social media by bringing together policymakers with academics to improve the analysis and understanding of the patt...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on cyberhate on social media, which is related to extremist communication, but does not fully address the specific aspects of recruitment and promotion.

  • ExId: Extreme Identities: A Linguistic and Visual Analysis of European Far-Right Online Communities’ Politics of Identity

    The ExId project offers a comprehensive analysis of the European far-right online landscape. Combining cutting-edge computational methods with in-depth qualitative analysis, the team will identify the many online far-rig...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

  • #ContestingIslamophobia: Representation and Appropriation in Mediated Activism.

    This project examines the dynamics of anti- and pro-Muslim online activism. Using Twitter # campaigns as its starting point we focus on the appropriation of global 'trigger' events, such as terror attacks, by right wing ...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: Keele University

Similar ARIs from other organisations

Risk management What are the drivers of extremism and what works to reduce radicalisation? How effective are de-radicalisation interventions? What factors have a strong influence on the de-radicalisation of individuals? Ministry of Justice, 2020
See details
Focus on what matters most to Londoners Effectively safeguarding those vulnerable to radicalisation Metropolitan Police, 2019
See details