commbox Extremism & Hate Speech

Beyond the “Big Three”: Alternative Platforms for Online Hate Speech

SCAN Specialised Cyber-Activists Network (2019), 13 pp.

"As the ‘big three’ social media platforms Facebook, YouTube and Twitter increasingly lose their relevance for young users, other social media, especially Instagram, step up to fill this space. Our research showed that hate groups and extremists wishing to influence minors or young adults with t ... more

Reflect your past: Online-Radikalisierung

Manjana Sold

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) (2019), 5 pp.

"Digitale Kommunikation spielt in unserem Alltag eine immer größere Rolle. Vor allem Jugendliche nutzen insbesondere das Internet zum Austausch mit Freund*innen als Informationsquelle und zur Unterhaltung. Extremistische Akteure wissen das und nutzen Internet-Plattformen und -Dienste zur Kommunika ... more

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Social Media in Africa: An Emerging Force for Autocrats and Activists

Geoffrey York

In: Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond

Allan Thompson (ed.)

Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2019), pp. 415-430

"The most extreme damage inflicted by social media can be seen in South Sudan. As documented in the chapter by Theo Dolan, social media in South Sudan has contributed to hatred and conflict among ethnic groups. Many investigators, including UN investigators, have warned that South Sudan's social med ... ia are triggering violence against ethnic groups. Since the beginning of the civil war in late 2013, social media has fuelled waves of hate speech that have provoked deadly violence and ethnic conflict in South Sudan, including massacres and other atrocities. In that sense, social media has become a new variation of the "hate radio" phenomenon that flourished in Rwanda before and during the 1994 genocide … Social media is also emerging as a powerful way to harass and intimidate the opponents of a regime or a political party. In this sense, it adds another weapon to the arsenal of a powerful regime that already has multiple weapons at its disposal. A regime can mobilize its supporters to use social media in a targeted way against its foes, or it can use its financial resources to create a fake army of fictional users on social media. In either case, it is tilting the playing field against its enemies. A targeted attack through social media can be more effective than the telephone threats or messages often deployed in the past. The use of social media can be more intimidating because it belittles the targeted person in front of a much bigger audience. The presence of this audience means that the attack is more damaging, more difficult to ignore and has the potential to mobilize large numbers of people against the victim … While social media is often used for anti-democratic purposes in Africa's authoritarian states, it has also been used as a force for reform, accountability and justice. It has helped to safeguard the fairness of elections. It has allowed greater scrutiny of potential threats, such as vote-rigging or violence, allowing citizens to be alerted when there is still a chance to prevent the worst abuses. It has put a spotlight on corruption and political wrongdoing, allowing activists to mobilize pressure on governments to resolve these long-neglected problems. In some cases, as it did in the Arab Spring, social media has played a role in toppling an authoritarian state. When an election was called in the small West African state of Gambia, where the dictator Yahya Jammeh had ruled for 22 years, opposition candidates had little access to state-controlled media. So the main opposition party created more than a dozen WhatsApp groups, allowing it to communicate with voters. Other forms of social media also proliferated. A leading independent group, the Gambia Youth and Women's Forum, discussed election issues on a public Facebook group with 55,000 members. The government blocked access to WhatsApp and eventually extended the shutdown to the entire internet, but Gambians used virtual private network (VPN) technology to bypass the shutdown. The opposition won the election and Jammeh was forced to flee the country." (Pages 419-423) more

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ISIS Media

Annenberg School for Communication, Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) (2019), 45 pp.

Radikalisierungsmaschinen: Wie Extremisten die neuen Technologien nutzen und uns manipulieren
Top Insights

Julia Ebner

Berlin: Suhrkamp (2019), 334 pp.

"Julia Ebner verfolgt hauptberuflich Extremisten. Undercover mischt sie sich unter Hacker, Terroristen, Trolle, Fundamentalisten und Verschwörer, sie kennt die Szenen von innen, von der Alt-Right-Bewegung bis zum Islamischen Staat, online wie offline. Ihr Buch macht Radikalisierung fassbar, es ist ... more

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What is the Relationship Between Hate Radio and Violence? Rethinking Rwanda's "Radio Machete"

Scott Straus

In: Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond

Allan Thompson (ed.)

Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2019), pp. 97-130

"The evidence amounts to a persuasive refutation of the commonly held beliefs that radio had widespread, direct effects and that hate radio was the primary driver of the genocide and participation in it. That said, the evidence suggests radio had some marginal and conditional effects. RTLM broadcast ... more

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Facebook India. Towards the Tipping Point of Violence: Caste and Religious Hate Speech

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Abishek Kumar, Priya Nair, Josh Greely

Equality Labs (2019), 65 pp.

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The Psychology of State-Sponsored Disinformation Campaigns and Implications for Public Diplomacy

Erik C. Nisbet, Olga Kamenchuk

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, volume 14, issue 1/2 (2019), pp. 65-82

"Policy discourse about disinformation focuses heavily on the technological dimensions of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. Unfortunately, this myopic focus on technology has led to insufficient attention being paid to the underlying human factors driving the success of state-sponsored disin ... more

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"Fake News," Dangerous Speech and Mass Violence: Challenges for Social Media in the Developing World

Stephanie MacLellan

In: Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond

Allan Thompson (ed.)

Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2019), pp. 483-500

"The cases discussed in this chapter have demonstrated how disinformation and rhetoric that is spread through social media in the developing world often meets the Benesch criteria for dangerous speech. It comes from influential sources, which can include family and friends who share it. It plays on ... more

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Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy

Corneliu Bjola, James Pamment (eds.)

Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge (2019), xiv, 213 pp.

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Counter-Narratives: Myanmar's Digital Media Activists

Sarah Oh

In: Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change

Lisa Brooten; Jane Madlyn McElhone; Gayathry Venkiteswaran (eds.)

Singapore: ISEAS (2019), pp. 377-386

"In the months before Myanmar's national elections in November 2015, Khin Oo says she began to engage directly with Facebook users to dispel rumours and misinformation that, in her view, propagated hate and inflamed intercommunal tensions. She posted "right speech" and "right information" by comment ... more

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Fake News: Moderne Lügen entlarven und entspannt reagieren

Thorben Prenzel

Frankfurt am Main: Wochenschau-Verlag (2019), 174 pp.

"Thorben Prenzel stellt in seinem Buch die Triple-A-Methode vor, die eine einfache Handlungsanleitung für den Alltag bietet. Diese verständliche Schritt-für-Schritt Anleitung hilft Ihnen, gekonnt die richtigen Argumente zur richtigen Zeit anzubringen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)

Hate Ontology

Platforms, Experts, Tools: Specialised Cyber-Activists Network (sCAN);International League Against Racism and Antisemitism (Licra) (2018), 33 pp.

Antigypsyism online: Spirals of hate, racist framing and right-wing extremist propaganda as a risk for young users

jugendschutz.net;Central Council of German Sinti & Roma;Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti & Roma (2018), 7 pp.

Islamism on the Internet: 2017 Report

Patrick Frankenberger, Ingrid Hofmann, Flemming Ipsen, Nava Zarabian

Mainz: jugendschutz.net (2018), 19 pp.

Islamists between beauty bloggers and pop stars: Aesthetics and lifestyle to lure young people on Instagram

jugendschutz.net (2018), 3 pp.

Human Rights Online

Amsterdam: International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) (2018), 23 pp.

Hateful Commenting Online: Control Strategies for Newsrooms

Leif Kramp, Stephan Weichert

Vistas Verlag (2018), 30 pp.

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Freedom of Expression and Religious Hate Speech in Europe

Erica Howard

London; New York: Routledge (2018), xv, 191 pp.

"In recent years, the Danish cartoons affair, the Charlie Hebdo murders and the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris have resulted in increasingly strident anti-Islamic speeches by politicians. This raises questions about the limits to freedom of expression and whether this freedom can and should ... more