Tech Against Terrorism

This week we’re bringing you a special episode investigating the conflict in Ukraine. We unpack the truth around violent extremist elements operating in Ukraine amid the online information war that’s been unfolding. We speak to experts who expose the Russian claims of denazification as state-sponsored disinformation, and interrogate the reality of the violent far-right presence and influence of foreign fighters in Ukraine. Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Ukraine-based Olga Yurkova who is the Co-founder of StopFake.org, an educational platform which aims to teach people about the dangers of spreading false information. We also hear from Kacper Rekawek, a PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo. And finally, from Jason Blazakis who is a Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and former Director of the Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, Bureau of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State. We also get valuable insight from Arthur Bradley, a Senior OSINT analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, who explains the divergent reaction of the international far-right to the invasion online. Our experts reveal troubling links between the Russian state and far-right fighters in Ukraine exposing Kremlin narratives as not only false but contradictory.  How do you tell if a photo or video posted online is real or fake? Here's a simple video by the BBC's Disinformation team on how to check and verify content shared online about the war in Ukraine. Or you can find this article on Olga’s website StopFake.org on “How to recognise a fake.”To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

On this week’s episode of the podcast, we’re looking at terrorist designation. We analyse different countries’ designation systems and discuss how they can be improved. We consider the role designation plays in the fight against terrorism and how it can be used as a tool to tackle terrorist content online. Anne Craanen is joined by two experts on designation, firstly Dr. Anna Meier who is an Assistant Professor of political science and international relations at the University of Nottingham. Anna studies counterterrorism in Germany and the United States, with a particular interest in white supremacist violence and proscription policy. Anne also speaks to Jason Blazakis, Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and former Director of the Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, Bureau of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State. Jason is also a Senior Advisor at The Soufan Group.Our other guest this week is David Shanks who is the Chief Censor of the New Zealand Classification Office. David’s role as part of this media regulator includes making determinations about the legality of the most extreme and violent terrorist content. He gives us a fascinating insight into some of the dilemmas this responsibility entails and on what can be done to better tackle terrorist content online. We also get insight from Archie Macfarlane, who is a Junior Research Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, on the work TAT has been doing on designation.To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. 

On this week’s episode of the podcast, we’re looking at online regulation. We consider why regulation is so important, how the landscape has evolved, and focus on some of the specific challenges around regulating terrorist content online. We also touch on influential regulation that’s been recently adopted as well as regulation that’s currently being considered, including the UK’s Online Safety Bill. Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Luca Bertuzzi who is a tech journalist specialising in digital policy and European affairs. He is Digital and Media Editor at EURACTIV, where he oversees an international team based in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. We're also joined by Asha Allen from the Centre of Democracy and Technology, Europe Office; where she coordinates the organisation's advocacy engagement on the Digital Services Act and European Democracy Action Plan. Asha is a human rights advocate and policy specialist with an extensive background in leading advocacy to eradicate online gender-based violence.Anne also gets insight from Jacob Berntsson who is the Head of Policy & Research at Tech Against Terrorism. He oversees the programmatic delivery and implementation of the organisation’s work. Jacob specialises in analysing tech policy and emerging global online regulation and has previous work experience in government intelligence and from the private sector.To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. To find out more about the online regulatory landscape, check out The Online Regulation Series Handbook. You can follow Luca Bertuzzi on Twitter here and Asha Allen here. You can find out more about the Centre of Democracy and Technology here. 

Welcome back to part 2 of our deep dive into tech platform policy around countering terrorism and violent extremism. In this episode, we’re getting insight from Zoom and Clubhouse into how their community standards have been developed with tackling harmful content in mind.In this episode, Anne Craanen speaks to Jessica Mason, Head of Global Policy and Public Affairs at Clubhouse, and Josh Parecki, Head of Trust and Safety at Zoom. They provide a tech platform perspective on what informs their counterterrorism policies, why each platform faces different challenges in implementing their policies, and what’s being done to support tech companies navigate these difficult trust and safety challenges. Fabienne Tarrant, a Senior Policy Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, also explains how Tech Against Terrorism supports tech companies develop and strengthen these policies through mentorship and knowledge sharing.If you missed part 1, Anne spoke to Charlotte Willner who’s the Executive Director at the Trust and Safety Professional Association, about her work as one of Facebook’s early content moderators and how the Trust and Safety landscape has changed since then. Charlotte shares valuable insight into the human side of moderating terrorist and violent extremist content online. To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. If you’re interested in learning more about Tech Against Terrorism’s support to tech companies, you can find out about mentorship here, or background information about our Knowledge Sharing Platform here, which can be accessed following registration here. You can read more about Trust & Safety at Clubhouse here and Zoom here. You can learn more about the Trust & Safety Professional Association here.  

Welcome to part 1 of our deep dive into tech platform policy around countering terrorism and violent extremism. There’s a slightly different format this week, as we first chat to Charlotte Willner who gives us some context into the evolution of moderating terrorist content before we get a tech platform perspective on how these challenges look today.In part 1, Anne Craanen speaks to Charlotte Willner who’s the Executive Director at the Trust & Safety Professional Association. Charlotte was one of Facebook’s early content moderators and went on to build and lead the company's first Safety Operations team. She gives unique insight into the early challenges Facebook encountered in developing policies to counter terrorist content, how these content moderation challenges have evolved since, as well as inevitable dilemmas human moderators face in the field of Trust and Safety. Come back for part 2, where we speak to Jessica Mason of Clubhouse and Josh Parecki of Zoom to get a tech platform perspective on what informs their counterterrorism policies, why each platform faces different challenges in implementing their policies, and what’s being done to support tech companies navigate these difficult Trust and Safety challenges.To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. You can learn more about the Trust & Safety Professional Association here.  

In this week’s episode, we’re looking into how violent Islamist groups exploit the internet, how this has evolved in the last decade, and why these online networks are so resilient to content moderation efforts. We also share some of the things we’re doing here at Tech Against Terrorism to counter this threat and consider what tech companies and governments can do to help. Join Anne Craanen as she speaks again to Mina Al-Lami who heads up the Jihadist Media Team at BBC Monitoring. Mina is a native Arabic speaker and has spent the past 15 years tracking and analysing jihadist activity, messaging and platforms.Anne is also joined by Laurence Bindner who is the co-founder of the JihadOScope (JOS) Project, a platform for extremist and terrorist propaganda analysis. Laurence is also a member of the UNCTAD Global Research Network and a GNET (Global Network on Extremism and Technology) associate fellow.We again chat to Arthur Bradley who’s a Senior Open-source Intelligence Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and head of content collection for the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP).To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. You can learn more about the work BBC Monitoring does here.You can find out more about the UNCTAD Global Research Network here and GNET here. You can also follow JihadOScope on twitter @JihadoScope.

In this week’s episode, we’re exploring the violent far-right’s use of the internet. We learn what is meant by the ‘far-right’, how different platforms are exploited by violent far-right actors, and the constant evolution of violent far-right content and its online dissemination. We also address some of the challenges moderators and tech platforms face when it comes to monitoring and taking down violent far-right content online. During the episode, we delve into conspiratorial narratives, unpack their centrality in far-right online culture, and explore why they become so deeply rooted. Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Blyth Crawford who’s a Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation where she specialises in far-right online social movements. Blyth is also a PhD candidate at King’s College London where she studies far-right radicalisation within online forums. Beatriz Buarque is also on the panel - she’s a PhD candidate at the University of Manchester, investigating the legitimisation of alt-right conspiracy theories. Beatriz is also the founder of the award-winning NGO ‘Words Heal the World’. We also hear from Arthur Bradley who’s a Senior Open-source Intelligence Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism and head of content collection for the Terrorist Content Analytics Platform (TCAP), where he works with tech companies and governments across the world in countering terrorist use of the internet using open-source intelligence.To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. You can learn more about the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) here.You can find out more about ‘Words Heal the World’ here. 

This week, we’re discussing the role of the internet in the radicalisation of terrorists and violent extremists. We learn what radicalisation is, debunk some of the myths surrounding it, and explore how the online and offline worlds interact in radicalising an individual. We’ll also touch on a range of case studies and consider what tech companies and governments can do to combat online radicalisation. Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Maura Conway, Professor of International Security at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. Maura is also the Coordinator of VOX-Pol, an EU-funded project on violent online political extremism.Anne is also joined by Ryan Scrivens, Assistant Professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Ryan is an Associate Director at the International CyberCrime Research Centre at Simon Fraser University in Canada and a Research Fellow at VOX-Pol.To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. You can learn more about the work of VOX-Pol here.  You can find out more about the International CyberCrime Research Centre here. 

In this episode, we discuss Islamic State’s large-scale attack on Ghuwayran prison in north-eastern Syria to break out jailed IS fighters, focusing on the extent to which the event translated into a propaganda victory for the group. During the episode, we uncover how the prison break played out both online and offline, the reaction from online IS supporter networks, and the effect of these kinds of operations on IS recruitment efforts. We also touch on the death of the group's leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, following a US raid in northern Syria, and unpack the muted response from online supporters. Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Mina Al-Lami who heads up the Jihadist Media Team at BBC Monitoring. Mina is a native Arabic speaker and has spent the past 15 years tracking and analysing jihadist activity, messaging and platforms.Anne is also joined by Dr. Vera Mironova who is a renowned conflict journalist having reported from the front line of the fight against IS. She is also an academic, scholar, producer, speaker, research fellow and policy consultant, as well as an award-winning writer having authored "From Freedom Fighters to Jihadists: Human Resources of Non State Armed Groups." We also hear from Deeba Shadnia who’s an Open-source Intelligence Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, specialising in tracking how violent Islamists and the violent far-right exploit online spaces. To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. You can learn more about the work BBC Monitoring does here.If you want to know more about Vera Mironova’s work, you can find her website here. 

In this episode, we learn about violent far-right groups who are using the internet to plan and carry out real-world attacks. We hear how dangerous these fringe online communities really are and the work that’s going on behind the scenes to tackle this threat.Join Anne Craanen as she speaks to Alex Newhouse, Deputy Director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism (CTEC) and Director of Technical Research at the Accelerationism Research Consortium (ARC). He also has an MA in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute and MS in Analytics from Georgia Tech.Anne is also joined by Matt Kriner, Senior Research Scholar at the CTEC and Managing Director at ARC. Matt is an intelligence analyst with almost a decade of experience researching and analysing US domestic violent extremists, transnational far-right extremism, and radicalisation.We also hear from Deeba Shadnia who’s an Open-source Intelligence Analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, specialising in tracking how violent Islamists and the violent far-right exploit online spaces. Her background is in social media intelligence and she has previously worked on projects identifying state-backed influence operations online.During the episode, our experts uncover the online network of neo-Nazi accelerationist groups behind a foiled terrorist plot in Texas, how they exploit the internet to spread their message, and consider how this translates to offline violence. We also hear what tech companies and organisations such as the Accelerationism Research Consortium (ARC) are doing to monitor and combat these online groups.  To find out more about Tech Against Terrorism and our work, visit techagainstterrorism.org or follow us on Twitter @techvsterrorism, where you can find resources on this topic. You can learn more about the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism (CTEC) here.You can find out more about the Accelerationism Research Consortium (ARC) here.