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The Role of the Internet in Facilitating Violent Extremism and Terrorism: Suggestions for
Progressing Research
Ryan Scrivens, Michigan State University
Paul Gill, University College London
Maura Conway, Dublin City University
Abstract:
Many researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers continue to raise questions about the role of
the Internet in facilitating violent extremism and terrorism. A surge in research on this issue
notwithstanding, relatively few empirically-grounded analyses are yet available. This chapter
provides researchers with five key suggestions for progressing knowledge on the role of the
Internet in facilitating violent extremism and terrorism so that we may be better placed to
determine the significance of online content and activity in the latter going forward. These five
suggestions relate to: (1) collecting primary data across multiple types of populations; (2)
making archives of violent extremist online content accessible for use by researchers and on
user-friendly platforms; (3) outreaching beyond terrorism studies to become acquainted with, for
example, the Internet studies literature and engaging in interdisciplinary research with, for
example, computer scientists; (4) including former extremists in research projects, either as study
participants or project collaborators; and (5) drawing connections between the on- and offline
worlds of violent extremists.
Keywords: violent extremism; terrorism; radicalization; Internet; social media
Citation: Scrivens, Ryan, Paul Gill, and Maura Conway. (In Press). The Role of the Internet in
Facilitating Violent Extremism and Terrorism: Suggestions for Progressing Research. In Thomas J.
Holt and Adam Bossler (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and
Cyberdeviance. London, UK: Palgrave (Cybercrime Series) (by invitation). Forthcoming, 2019.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
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Introduction
Like most of us, violent extremists often leave a digital footprint behind. Notable examples
include Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right terrorist who was a registered member of a
white supremacy web-forum (Bartlett and Littler 2011); Dylann Roof, who allegedly posted
messages on a white power website (Southern Poverty Law Center 2015); and Aaron Driver,
who showed outright support for the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS) on several social media
platforms (Amarasingam 2016). In such cases, questions often surround the impact of the
offenders’ consumption of and networking around violent extremist online content in their up-
take of extremist ideology and/or their decision to engage in violent extremism and terrorism.
These questions sit at the top of the priority list for many researchers, practitioners, and
policy-makers (Conway 2016). At recent specialized terrorism conferences – including, for
example, the 2018 VOX-Pol Conference on ‘Violent Extremism, Terrorism, and the Internet:
Present and Future Trends’ – the nexus between the on- and offline worlds of violent extremists
dominates much of the discussion.
1
Similarly, workshops hosted by law enforcement, the
defence community, and similar agencies – such as the Swedish Defence Research Agency’s
Seminar Day on ‘Violent Extremism: Methods, Tools and Techniques for Detecting and
Analyzing Violent Extremism’ – focus much of their attention on gaining insight into how the
online discussions, behaviors and actions of violent extremists can spill over into the offline
realm.
2
Similarly, at summits and roundtable discussions, social media companies – including
Facebook with their Dangerous Organizations Summit – display concern about their platforms
facilitating radical communications which, in a number of instances, has translated into violent
offline activity. Others, including policy-makers, are concerned that high and increasing levels of
always-on Internet access and the production and wide dissemination of large amounts of violent
extremist content online may have violent radicalizing effects (Berger and Strathearn 2013;
Carter, Maher, and Neumann 2014; Edwards and Gribbon 2013; Gray and Head 2009; Stenersen
2008). This is, after all, a primary goal of the producers of such content.
1
For more information on the conference, visit: https://www.voxpol.eu/events/vox-pol-third-biennial-conference/.
2
For more information on the workshop, visit: http://www.it.uu.se/research/arenas/security/security-
seminars/ELIAS2.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
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The abovementioned concerns and interests notwithstanding, little is empirically known
about the Internet’s role in the facilitation of violent extremism and terrorism (Gill, Corner,
Conway, Thornton, Bloom, and Horgan 2017).
Determining the significance of the role of the Internet in contemporary extremism and
terrorism is not the goal of this chapter, however; it has a narrower remit. It provides researchers
with five key suggestions for progressing knowledge on the role of the Internet in facilitating
violent extremism and terrorism so that we may be better placed to determine the significance of
the Internet’s role in the latter going forward. In what follows, we provide five suggestions that
relate to: (1) collecting primary data across multiple types of populations; (2) making archives of
violent extremist online content accessible for use by researchers and on user-friendly platforms;
(3) outreaching beyond terrorism studies to become acquainted with, for example, the Internet
studies literature and engaging in interdisciplinary research with, for example, computer
scientists; (4) including former extremists in research projects, either as study participants and/or
project collaborators; and (5) drawing connections between the on- and offline worlds of violent
extremists. This chapter also draws from and builds on Conway’s (2016) six suggestions for
progressing research on the intersections of violent extremism and terrorism and the Internet.
Recommendation 1: Collecting Primary Data Across Multiple Types of Populations
Reviews of the terrorism research literature regularly highlight the paucity of original data that
inform analyses (Schmid and Jongman 1988; Silke 2001, 2004). In his most recent review of the
literature, Silke (2013) noted: “[O]ne feels that a great deal more needs to be done before
research is consistently building on past work rather than rehashing old data” (p. 34).
Resultantly, as Silke argues, terrorism research has lagged behind analogous fields. The most
recent review, however, offers a more positive outlook. Schuurman (2018) analyzed over 3,000
articles published in leading terrorism-specific journals between 2007 and 2016 and found that
over half used some form of primary sources. The Society for Terrorism Research (2018) also
described the data revolution in terrorism studies as a transition from a data shortage to one of
“sufficiency and perhaps even excess” (p. 1).
A systematic review of the scientific knowledge base of factors associated with
engagement in terrorism shows a similar improvement in empiricism over time (Desmarais,
Simons-Rudolph, Brugh, Schilling, and Hoggan 2017). However, this increase has not been
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
4
uniform across the field. Empirical studies examining engagement in violent extremism and
terrorism demonstrates the field tends to focus on individual-level risk factors (e.g., socio-
demographic characteristics, criminal history, religion and spirituality, work and education,
relationship status, mental health), personal experiences, attitudes and beliefs, environmental
factors and individual motives. Only 18 studies that met Desmarais et al.’s (2017) stringent
systematic review criteria empirically examined the radicalization process. Fewer still,
presumably, examined the online radicalization process.
Indeed, Hassan et al. (2018) conducted a systematic review specifically focused on the
relationship between the impact of extremist online content and violent radicalization. Eleven
studies fit their eligibility criteria. The included quantitative studies involved two cross-sectional
analyses with data derived from surveys (Pauwels and Schils 2016) and online discussion forums
(Wojcieszak 2010), retrospective studies of those who committed acts of terrorism (Gill et al.
2017) and engaged with radicalizing materials on Twitter (Magdy, Darwish, Abokhodair,
Rahimi, and Baldwin 2016), and two with pre/post measures conducted in a lab setting (Lee and
Leets 2002; Rieger, Frischlich, and Bente 2013). The included qualitative studies involved focus
groups that directly exposed participants to propaganda material (Baines, O’Shaughnessy,
Moloney, Richards, Butler, and Gill 2010), interviews and ethnographic work with those
previously exposed to radicalizing material as well as former extremists (Drevon 2016; Koehler
2014b; Sikorskaya 2017; von Behr, Reding, Edwards, and Gribbon 2013), and case studies
including one examining the computer hard-drives of convicted terrorists (Drevon 2016; von
Behr et al. 2013). The studies also looked at how exposure to online materials produced changes
in emotion (Baines et al. 2010; Sikorskaya 2017), attitudes (Drevon 2016; Koehler 2014b; Lee
and Leets 2002; Magdy et al. 2016; Rieger et al. 2013; von Behr et al. 2013; Wojcieszak 2010)
and behavior (Drevon 2016; Gill et al. 2017; Pauwels and Schils 2016).
Other empirical studies, however, not included in Hassan et al.’s (2018) systematic
review have involved examinations of what media were found on the computers of convicted
terrorists (Holbrook 2017; Holbrook 2019), the volume of media consumed by terrorists
(Capellan 2015; Gill, Horgan, and Decker 2014; Gruenewald, Chermak, and Freilich 2013;
Horgan, Shortland, Abbasciano, and Walsh 2016; Porter and Kebbell 2011), the interaction
between the individual consuming the propaganda and the content of the propaganda itself
(Bouzar and Martin 2016), the impact of exposure upon attitudinal affinity with an extremist
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
5
cause (Ilardi 2013; Kleinmann 2012; Koehler 2014b; Turpin-Petrosino 2002), the impact of
exposure upon mobilization to terrorist engagement (Bazex and Mensat 2016; Klausen,
Campion, Needle, Nguyen, and Libretti 2016; Reeser 2011; Riaz and Parvez 2018), the specific
manifestations of radicalizing narratives that prompted engagement in terrorism (Abbas and
Yigit 2016; Özeren, Sever, Yilmaz, and Sözer 2014; Sieckelinck, Sikkens, van San, Kotnis, and
De Winter 2017; van San 2018; Wojcieszak 2009), and the impact of exposure upon
mobilization to terrorist behavior (Böckler, Hoffman and Zick 2015; Holbrook and Taylor 2017).
Many of these studies involved interviews, surveys, and/or access to police files.
The potential to collect primary data (be it, open-, closed- or researcher generated data)
across multiple types of populations (e.g., general public, those with attitudinal affinity, those
with radicalized beliefs, and those who committed terrorism) is clearly evident. The emerging
evidence base is also pretty clear. Those who are radicalized and/or commit acts of terrorism
have generally been exposed to radicalizing content. Exposure to this content leads to affective,
emotional, and behavioral change at each stage of the process. Of course, some of these studies
have relatively small sample sizes, and are only focused on specific types of terrorists or
geographical contexts. The key now is to replicate and build upon this preliminary evidence to
give us a sense of not just whether exposure to ideological content in the online environment
causes violent extremism, but also how, in what contexts and for whom?
Is ‘exposure’ sufficient whether it is in the virtual or physical world? Does it work
differently for different people in different contexts? To unpick the specificity of the ‘online’
environment, exposure to other materials offline have to be incorporated into research designs.
The only study of its type is Turpin-Petrosino (2002) who conducted 567 surveys with secondary
school and university-level students. The surveys centered around exposure to hate group
propaganda and individual attitudes towards these groups. Respondents reported six different
types of contact: print material contact (4%), word-of-mouth contact (3.7%), U.S. mail contact
(3.4%), local cable television contact (2.6%), Internet contact (1.8%) and phone contact (1.4%).
Levels of support for the ideology also differed across these exposure types. Forty percent of
those who received Internet contact self-reported supporting either neo-Nazi Skinhead or Ku
Klux Klan (KKK) ideology. Of the six exposure types, the Internet was the third most prolific
source in changing people’s attitudes – behind word-of mouth contact and phone contact. Given
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
6
the large innovations in the immersiveness of the online space since this study was conducted,
more replications are necessary.
Recommendation 2: Making Archives of Violent Extremist Online Content Accessible for
Researchers
The increased attention from researchers to violent extremism and terrorism may be due, in part,
to sophisticated, relatively user-friendly, virtual and open-source platforms containing qualitative
and/or quantitative data on terrorism events, groups, and individuals (Bowie 2018; Chermak,
Freilich, Parkin, and Lynch 2012). These range from academic, think tank and independent
databases to commercial and government databases (Bowie 2018). Notable leaders include the
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and their
Global Terrorism Database (GTD), Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States
(PIRUS), Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States’ (PPT-US), the Terrorist and
Extremist Organizations (TEO) Database, and the United States Extremist Crime Database
(ECDB); the Pew Research Center’s Data Surveys on Terrorism; the Terrorism Research and
Analysis Consortium (TRAC) Database; the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Extremist Files
Database; and the Jihadology online portal (for a recent list of terrorism databases and datasets,
see Bowie 2018).
These sources provide unprecedented opportunity and ability to address previously
unexplorable questions as well as assess and re-evaluate old research questions with new
resources and new research methods. Despite these recent developments, the ability to build,
maintain, and make accessible archives of violent extremist online content for use by researchers
lags behind parallel fields of study utilizing similar online material (Conway 2016).
Providing researchers with access to non-traditional data sources, especially open source
intelligence and social media data, will, without a doubt, transform the future understanding of
violent extremism and terrorism in general (LaFree and Freilich 2018) and the role of the
Internet in the facilitation of violent extremism and terrorism in particular (Conway 2016).
Surprisingly, only a small number of individuals have contributed to this initiative. The
University of Arizona’s Dark Web Forum Portal, for example, collected and made available the
content of 28 jihadi forums comprising nearly 13 million messages.
3
The Dark Crawler (TDC)
3
For more information on the Dark Web Forum Portal, visit https://www.azsecure-data.org.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
7
database, housed at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada, includes – but is not limited to –
over 11 million posts from the most conspicuous right-wing extremist forum, Stormfront; over 8
million posts that include Islamist content; as well as over 49 million posts drawn from 11
extreme right-wing subreddits. All are available to users for research upon request.
4
Yet not only
are these excellent databases few and far between, these two resources have not been widely
used by researchers (some notable exceptions include Chen 2012; Macnair and Frank 2018;
Scrivens, Davies and Frank 2017; Scrivens, Davies, and Frank 2018).
What, then, explains the lack of uptake? And why, compared to those who developed the
GTD, for example, are so few researchers developing similar databases for the purpose of
sharing violent extremist online content with others in the field? For the former, it may be the
case that such data sources are much less known than the GTD, for example. For the latter, we
suggest it is because most researchers in terrorism studies are social scientists and thus do not
have the necessary skills to easily collect, store, and analyze truly large quantities of online data.
Further, a lack of standards related to online research, including the absence of methodological
rigor related to sampling and concerns about data saturation, plays a role. There are at least four
ways to overcome this obstacle however: (1) learn how to undertake basic online data collection
and analysis ourselves; (2) build data archives and develop bespoke tools; (3) use commercial
data brokers, and; (4) work with computer scientists. Collaborating with colleagues from other
disciplines, including computer science, is addressed in the next section, so we will briefly
address points 1-3 here.
It is possible for social scientists to learn how to use basic online data collection and
analysis tools, especially freely available open source software accompanied by clear “How
To” documentation and online tutorials. Gephi data visualization software is one such accessible
tool. This option is made more attractive when researchers have the opportunity to
learn how to use these tools in dedicated “real world” tutorials and workshops, preferably
tailored for social scientists.
5
Another option, as we have noted above, is to build, maintain, and
make accessible archives of violent extremist online content for use by researchers. Wide take-up
of these resources will most likely require the availability of easy-to-use analysis tools alongside
data in an integrated service, however.
4
For more information on the DarkCralwer, visit https://thedarkcrawler.com.
5
See, for example, the University of Amsterdam’s Digital Methods Initiative at https://www.digitalmethods.net.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
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The responsibility for sharing accessible content should not only be placed on
researchers. Social media companies should take active steps in assisting. This is not a simple
undertaking. To illustrate, Twitter has allowed researchers to extract data from their platform
using computer programs, but Facebook recently locked down their data following the
Cambridge Analytica scandal,
6
making it increasingly difficult for researchers to extract and, by
extension, conduct large-scale analyses of Facebook’s content (see Bastos and Walker 2018).
This is problematic for those working in terrorism studies since Facebook is by far the most
popular social networking site in the world (Statista 2018), and widely exploited by violent
extremist movements of different ideological standpoints (Awan 2017; Ekman 2018; Johnson et
al. 2016; Nouri, Lorenzo-Dus, and Di-Cristofaro 2017; Stier, Posch, Bleier, and Strohmaier
2017; Weimann 2010). While we acknowledge that social media companies must balance the
privacy of its users with national security, there requires the development of new partnerships
with researchers for the purposes of making online content accessible for scientific purposes. We
are seeing some signs of these next steps with, as an example, the implementation of ‘Social
Science One’, an initiative being developed at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative
Social Science in which academics from around the world are working with Facebook to identify
valuable datasets that will be made available to researchers through a peer-review process
(Reuell 2018).
We further suggest that, in developing industry-academic partnerships in terrorism
studies, researchers and social media companies should avoid operating in silos and, by
extension, hoarding data. This tactic has historically been the way in which many experts “do
business” (see King and Persily 2018). Not sharing information is particularly concerning in this
realm given the oftentimes scattered, fragmented nature of data. To illustrate, one stakeholder
may have one critical piece of information about the online activity of a particular violent
extremist group, for example, while another stakeholder may have another piece of information.
Developing open lines of communication and sharing information with researchers will,
undeniably, transform our understanding of the role of the Internet in the facilitation of violent
extremism and terrorism.
6
In early 2018, it was revealed that personal profiles of approximately 50 million Facebook users was harvested,
without their consent, by Cambridge Analytica for political purposes (Bastos and Walker 2018).
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
9
In addition to sharing data amongst key stakeholders, those working in this area should
make a concerted effort to triangulate data across databases and datasets. Taking a lead in this
respect are, for example, Chermak and Holt, who have triangulated data between the ECDB and
the PIRUS databases, testing whether theories of social control and social learning shed light on
the on- and offline pathways to hate and extremist violence. This provided multiple observational
points to explore the similarities and differences across offenders’ background, attitudes, and
behavior.
7
Perhaps equally valuable would be for researchers to merge such databases (and
others) with databases that include violent extremist online content, such as the abovementioned
Dark Web Forum Portal and the Dark Crawler database, and develop a central database in which
various online platforms that violent extremists and terrorists have been known to frequent can
be made available in one space. This would place researchers in a better position to explore, for
example, whether consumption of violent extremist online content lead directly to violent acts
occurring that would not have occurred if the Internet did not exist.
Recommendation 3: Outreaching Beyond Terrorism Studies and Engaging in
Interdisciplinary Research
The original interest of most of those currently researching the intersections of violent extremism
and the Internet is the former, rather than the latter. This is easily amendable by, for example,
exposing ourselves to new literatures beyond terrorism studies and/or direct outreach to
colleagues in other disciplines. A literature that researchers in our field could usefully familiarize
themselves with is Internet studies, while disciplines that we could perhaps most usefully
collaborate with colleagues from include computational linguistics, computer science,
information systems, and statistics.
It is pertinent to ask about media and communication studies in general and Internet
studies, in particular what Jackson (2012) asked about conflict analysis and peace research and
its relationship to terrorism studies. He inquired:
How is it that the “known” knowledge of the causes and resolution of violent political
conflict (including conflicts where terrorism was present), which has accumulated from
decades of conflict analysis and peace research, among others, remains largely
7
For more information on this project, visit https://external.ojp.usdoj.gov/SelectorServer/awards/pdf/award/2015-
ZA-BX-0004/2016-91422-MD-IJ/2016.
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10
“unknown” within the terrorism studies field? Why is it that within terrorism studies
research continues apace on questions related to terrorism’s causes and effective
responses without reference to the key scholars and existing studies of peace and conflict
studies (p. 12)?
Reformulating Jackson’s (2012) question then: “How is it that knowledge of the intersections of
media and conflict (including conflicts where terrorism was present), which has accumulated
from decades of media and communication research, among others, remains largely ‘unknown’
within the terrorism studies field? Why is it that within terrorism studies research there has been
a surge of research on questions related to terrorism and the Internet, especially social media,
without reference to the key scholars and existing studies of media and communication research
generally and Internet studies particularly?” A ready answer to this question, which basically
queries our lack of knowledge of other social science research, is much more difficult to supply
than, say, a convincing answer to the question of why collaboration between social scientists and
computer scientists or statisticians is not more prevalent.
We want to emphasize here the necessity of drawing from Internet studies to enrich
research on violent online extremism and terrorism. There is a large and increasing body of work
done by Internet researchers that is germane to this particular sphere. Internet researchers have,
for example, generated a significant amount of work on credibility and trust online, none of
which deals directly with violent extremism or terrorism, but is nonetheless straightforwardly
relevant in that it engages deeply with questions like how credibility is built online, how
credibility is lost online, and so on (Bowen and Bowen 2015; Bryce and Fraser 2014; Naquin
and Paulson 2003; Nissenbaum 2011; Wang and Emurian 2005). Hegghammer’s (2014) analysis
of jihadi online forums is clearly enriched by his drawing from this specific literature, but few
other terrorism researchers have followed his lead. Another pertinent area of Internet research is
the strongly consistent finding that discussion forums and other online spaces are generally
dominated by a few “super contributors” (e.g., Ducol 2012; Leimeister and Krcmar 2005;
Silverstone 2005). Berger and Morgan (2015) made a similar finding for IS-related Twitter
activity (i.e., of the network of 40,000+ user accounts analyzed, c. 1,500-3,000 were prolific
tweeters), but omitted discussion of the way in which this is at least partially explainable by
previous research on non-extremist online environments and thus is not unique to IS. Having
said this, ‘The ISIS Twitter Census’ is an excellent example of a beneficial collaborative
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
11
relationship between an extremism researcher and a technologist/data scientist, which did the
important job of answering some of the what questions regarding IS’s Twitter presence.
Truly interdisciplinary research is easier said than done. Collaborating with colleagues
from other disciplines, including computational linguistics and computer science, is distinctly
different than drawing from other social science fields like communication studies or Internet
studies. It was suggested above that social scientists educate ourselves in the use of basic online
data collection and analysis tools. However, for more sophisticated analyses, we need to work
with those who not only have knowledge of the available tools and their deployment, but can
tailor these further. This is not a one-way relationship with computer scientists benefiting their
social science colleagues in the absence of benefit to themselves. The best outcomes are obtained
by computer scientists collaborating with domain experts, in this case those with knowledge of
the ideologies prevalent within and the day-to-day workings of online extremism and terrorism.
Increased collaboration between social scientists, especially terrorism studies scholars, and
computer scientists is the most pressing need, but there are a host of other colleagues we could
doubtless also benefit from collaborating with (e.g., criminology, psychology, law, etc.).
Recommendation 4: Including Former Extremists in Research Projects
A growing industry (i.e., research centres, consultancy groups, and government departments) is
tackling the problem of violent extremism, both in the “real world” and in cyberspace. Known in
academic and government circles as ‘countering violent extremism’ (CVE), it is largely designed
to divert individuals from radicalization to violence using “soft” approaches rather than purely
securitized and/or criminal justice responses (Harris-Hogan, Barrelle, and Zammit 2015).
Commonly, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers draw from the insights of former
violent extremists and terrorists – colloquially known as “formers.” Some researchers, however,
have raised concerns about including formers in CVE campaigns, ranging from discussions
about their reliability and credibility to questions about whether their inclusion could raise
concerns in the public sphere (see RAND Corporation 2017).
By conducting in-depth interviews with former extremists, researchers have gained
insight into processes of radicalization to violent extremism (Koehler, 2014a, 2014b; Simi,
Sporer, and Bubolz 2016), factors that minimize radicalization to mass casualty violence (Simi
and Windisch 2018), and greater comprehension of processes of disengagement from violent
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
12
extremism (Barrelle 2015; Bubolz and Simi 2015; Horgan, Altier, Shortland, and Taylor 2017;
Simi, Blee, DeMichele, and Windisch 2017; Windisch, Ligon, and Simi 2017). Additionally,
researchers generally agree that formers can usefully advise on the development and leveraging
of counter-narratives due to their first-hand experience in extremist movements. By extension,
they are also more likely to be perceived as credible voices by those who may be attracted to
violent extremist groups or radical ideologies (Bjørgo and Horgan 2008; Braddock and Horgan
2016; Briggs and Feve 2013; Jacobson 2010; Macnair and Frank 2017).
In recent years, social media, tech companies and think tanks in particular have been
quick to turn to formers to assist in the development of online CVE campaigns. The ‘Redirect
Method’ is one illustration. It combines Google’s search advertising algorithms (i.e. AdWord
technology) and YouTube’s video platform to identity those who are searching for violent
extremist content on Google and then expose them to counter-narratives.
8
Former extremists
have been involved in this process on at least two fronts: (1) a small group of formers developed
the list of targeted search terms, and (2) many of the counter-narratives that have been offered to
the target audience feature the stories of formers (see Helmus and Klein 2018).
Other online CVE initiatives that have gained attention in recent years include “Extreme
Dialogue”, which broadcasts an array of emotive films on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube,
some of which include stories from formers. These films attempt to dispel extremist myths and
encourage others to actively consider subjective experiences (Reynolds and Tuck 2016). In
addition, formers have served as intervention providers on online CVE campaigns, including the
Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s (ISD) “One to One” pilot project, in which formers directly
messaged an array of individuals Facebook identified as right-wing extremists or Islamists
(Davey, Birdwell, and Skellett 2018; Frenett and Dow 2014). Lastly, social media and tech
companies (such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube), in partnership with think tanks (e.g., ISD)
and CVE companies (e.g., Moonshot CVE), collaborate with former extremists to develop and
structure new responses to violent extremism online. Here, formers have been drawn upon to
enhance the abovementioned stakeholders’ knowledge on ways to counter violent online
extremism, ranging from formers being asked to identify and provide insight into content of
interest (e.g., hate symbols, keywords and terms) to providing tech companies with insight into
what counter-narratives may be effective. All such efforts, although on the surface promising,
8
A dedicated Redirect Method website is at https://redirectmethod.org.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
13
still require a full evaluation of effect size and direction, mechanisms (e.g., an understanding of
how these efforts make an effect), moderators (e.g., the contexts in which they work best),
implementation burdens, and cost (Bowers, Gill, Morgan, Meiklejohn, and Johnson 2018).
Regardless of the abovementioned developments, and despite an increased focus on the
intersection of violent extremism, terrorism and the Internet (e.g., Gill et al. 2017; Freilich and
Chermak 2012; Gerstenfeld, Grant, and Chiang 2003; Holt 2012), scholars who are working in
the field of violent online political extremism have been much slower to bring formers to the
table. An exhaustive search using dedicated academic research databases produced only two
studies that interviewed former extremists about their Internet usage when they were involved in
extremism. Koehler (2014b), for example, conducted in-depth interviews with German former
right-wing extremists, with the focus of the study on the role of the Internet in individual
radicalization processes. Overall, the author found that the Internet was the most important
driving factors in participants’ individual radicalization processes, as it provided members with a
space in which they could learn skills that were necessary to access online extremist groups.
Koehler also found that the Internet was a central hub for extreme right-wing groups, recruiters,
and strategies to influence the radical views and subsequent behavior of others online.
Sieckelinck et al. (2017), during their interviews with 34 former extremists (extreme right and
jihadist) in Denmark and the Netherlands on their life courses into and out of extremism, also
highlighted the key catalytic role of exposure to propaganda online. Following the 9/11 attacks,
an individual in their study decided to search online for information about the war in
Afghanistan. Viewing this content, the participant claimed, was a key push factor within their
radicalization process.
Also worth mentioning here are a small number of studies that interviewed current
extremists on their media consumption and radicalization process. Ilardi (2013), for example,
conducted interviews with seven Canadian jihadists and found that, in combination with close
personal relationships with other extremists, the exposure to extremist literature and media was
“decisive in instilling in interviewees the type of beliefs that would lead them to identify with the
world of radical Islam” (p. 728). Özeren et al. (2014), in their examination of the recruitment
strategies of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) via
face-to-face interviews with 42 members, depicted the organizations’ various media outlets,
including websites, online radio and television, as key to the organization’s recruitment strategy.
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14
Lastly, Bazex and Mensat (2016) conducted in-depth interviews with 12 young French jihadists
who fought in Syria and were, at the time of the study, in custody for terrorist related offenses.
The authors, who also had access to investigation files, noted several individual risk factors
including delinquent behaviors, setbacks in personal loving relationships, school failure,
variability in religious beliefs, and a lack of protective factors. The study also demonstrated that
consumption of radical material on the Internet played a fundamental role in the young jihadists’
decisions to go to Syria.
Indeed, these studies provide valuable insight into the Internet’s role in facilitating
violent extremism and terrorism, but this area of research remains in its infancy. Having said
this, in progressing our understanding of the role of the Internet in facilitating violent extremism
and terrorism, formers who have experience with, and insight into, the online dynamics of
violent extremist movements will play a critical role in future research, whether they serve as
participants or act as collaborators on research projects. In particular, in furthering our
understanding of the interplay between the Internet and violent extremism and terrorism,
researchers should incorporate former extremists into their research strategies by interviewing
them about their Internet usage and activities when they were involved in violent extremism.
Questions may include those that relate to:
(1) The types of online platforms they frequented when they were in an extremist group or
movement (e.g., websites, discussion forums, blogs, social media sites, etc.);
(2) Online activities they engaged in during their time in an extremist group or movement
(e.g., radical content consumption, propagandizing, recruitment, networking, planning
attacks, etc.);
(3) The extent to which they depended on the Internet to connect and communicate with
other adherents when they were in an extremist group or movement;
(4) Their online identity versus offline identity when they were in an extremist group or
movement;
(5) The extent to which their online contacts—versus their in-person contacts—influenced
their radical belief system during their time in a group or movement; and
(6) The extent to which their online contacts—versus their in-person contacts—influenced
their radical behavior and offline activities during their time in a group or movement.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
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Asking former extremists such questions should provide researchers with first-hand accounts of,
and insider’s perspectives into, a number of key issues that academics continue to be concerned
with, including how the online discussions, behaviors and actions of violent extremists and
terrorists can spill over into the offline realm. Within this context, Scrivens et al. (2018) suggest
that researchers can assess the potential confluence or divergence of on- and offline behavior by
interviewing former extremists who were: (a) active only online; (b) active only offline; and (c)
active across both online and off. Comparing their posting behaviors over time may provide
much-needed insight into how online behaviors may translate into the offline world.
For formers who are collaborators with researchers on academic projects, researchers
may consider including them in decision-making processes, especially at the front end of a
project. Formers, for example, can help make decisions about the types of online spaces that
should be the focus of a study (e.g., web-forums versus social media platforms) and/or the online
content that should be the focus of analysis (e.g., discussions about certain adversary groups,
martyrs, religious figures, etc.). At the analysis phase, formers can provide researchers with an
in-depth understanding of the online material and inner-workings of particular violent extremist
groups, for example. We caution researchers in this regard though. This type of collaboration
requires formers who are willing to work with researchers, as well as a level of trust between the
two. At the onset of a project, then, both parties should discuss their expectations from the
collaboration, especially those that relate to protecting the identity of the former(s). Certainly,
formers, out of fear of repercussions by members of their former extremist group (or other
groups), may not want to have a public profile and researchers must therefore protect their
identities if formers so choose (Briggs and Feve 2013; RAND Corporation 2017). Overcoming
these obstacles, and many others not mentioned here (for more information on the challenges of
working with formers, see RAND Corporation 2017), will be essential for the development of
these collaborations.
Recommendation 5: Drawing Connections Between the On- and Offline Worlds of Violent
Extremists
Online radicalization to violence does not happen in a vacuum. Even in those rare cases where
all exposure to radicalizing narratives and interactions with other co-ideologues happen in the
online space, the individual is still influenced by a crystallization of motives, needs and drivers
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
16
from the offline world. In fact, the adoption of extreme beliefs is often a response to other
problems in the offline world (see Gill 2015).
To date, we know very little about how this interacts empirically. What little evidence
does exist suggests that we should not conceive radicalization as an offline versus online
dichotomy. Von Behr et al. (2013), for example, examined primary data of 15 radicalized
individuals, nine of whom were convicted under United Kingdom (U.K.) terrorism legislation.
The study made use of interviews (with police and the individuals themselves), trial records and
computer registries. One key finding suggested the Internet is “not a substitute for in-person
meetings but, rather, complements in-person communication” (p. xii).
Additionally, Gill and Corner (2015) looked at the behavioral underpinnings of lone-actor
terrorists since 1990. The results suggested that whilst the number of lone-actor terrorist plots
remained stable over time, the growth in the Internet has altered their means of radicalization and
attack learning. The Internet therefore acts as a substitute for other factors such as intelligence
gathering and attack planning, not necessarily a force enabler. Furthermore, according to Gill and
Corner, there was a significant positive correlation between those who virtually interacted with
co-ideologues and those who interacted with co-ideologues face-to-face.
Building on Gill and Corner (2017), Gill et al. (2017) examined the online behaviors of
223 convicted U.K.-based terrorists. Those who learned online were 4.39 times more likely than
those who did not learn online to have experienced non-virtual network activity and 3.17 times
more likely to have experienced non-virtual place interaction. Of those who plotted an attack, the
individuals who attended training camps were also significantly more likely than those who did
not attend training camps to have learned online. Additionally, the evidence also suggested that
communicating with co-ideologues online was significantly more likely to have been
accompanied by face-to-face interactions with non-violent co-ideologues. Those who
communicated online were 3.89 times more likely to have experienced non-virtual network
activity and 3.17 times more likely to have experienced non-virtual place interaction. Of those
who plotted an attack, the individuals who attended training camps were also significantly more
likely to have communicated online. This may be due to the compartmentalization of tasks noted
by Gill (2015). For example, individuals tended to learn about a specific necessary task online
(e.g., bomb-making), but then found a different instrumentalization in their offline interactions
with co-ideologues (e.g., the justification of bombing a particular target).
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
17
Finally, Holbrook and Taylor (2017) focused on pre-arrest media usage of five case
studies of U.K.-based terrorist who were thwarted and convicted of offenses under terrorism
legislation. The cases consist of a lone dyad, a socially active lone actor, an isolated lone actor, a
connected lone actor, and a close-knit, hierarchical group. Holbrook and Taylor address a gap in
the literature by focussing on behaviors that occurred before subjects were arrested, rather than
relying on a post-arrest narrative that may have been skewed by self-justification. In all five
cases, a belief pathway precipitated any operational action where all actors were active
participants in the consumption, discussion and distribution of extremist materials before any
physical involvement in attack planning. Subjects consumed a diverse range of media across a
number of platforms and interacted online in chatrooms as well as offline by copying compact
discs (CDs) of extremist content for one another.
While much has been learned from these few studies about the link between the on- and
offline worlds of violent extremists and terrorism, researchers – in addition to the suggestions
described above – should draw from mixed methods approaches to further our understanding of
the intersection of violent extremism, terrorism, and the Internet. Researchers, for example,
could combine online data with offline data in an effort to triangulate the offline experiences of
violent extremists with their online presentation of self, language, and behavior. This, amongst
other research strategies, would provide researchers with a more in-depth understanding of the
interactions between the on- and offline worlds of violent extremists.
Conclusion
In closing, and by way of full disclosure, we believe the Internet is playing significant and
diverse roles in contemporary violent extremism and terrorism. Rapoport (2002) argues that
structural factors are very important in terms of influencing the various waves of terrorism
identified by him. Historically, new communication technologies (e.g., mass circulation
newspapers, radio, audio cassettes, and television) have been shown to be particularly influential
and have a history of transforming terrorism; the Internet is unlikely to be any different. Given
the resources, in terms of both time and money, they are inputting to online campaigns, a
diversity of contemporary violent extremists certainly thinks it’s having an impact too. Some of
the anecdotal evidence is also compelling. Taking just IS into account: online outreach to young
women has resulted in an influx of “jihadi brides” to Syria, similar online calls for families to
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNET IN FACILITATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM
18
migrate to the “caliphate” have seen an uptick in family groups departing various countries, and
a spate of previously uncommon types of terrorist attacks (e.g., running down people with cars,
and knifings) appear to correlate with online calls for these types of attacks to be undertaken.
None of this is sufficient of course; what needs to be supplied is theoretically sound, empirically
verifiable, social science research detailing— we hesitate to use the word “proving” in a social
science context, especially this social science context—the role of the Internet in contemporary
radicalization processes.
The earliest piece of analysis on violent extremism and the Internet appeared in 1985 (see
Anti-Defamation League 1985), but the vast bulk only began to be produced in the 2000s, with a
significant uptick since c.2010 and a particular spike since the height of IS. Research in this area
is thus not long underway and so, of course, there are many what and why questions still to be
asked and answered. The nature of the Internet means that it changes very fast. It is thus quite
difficult to effectively research the Internet and its workings over time. Direct audience research
is also problematic because of the nature of violent extremist and terrorist online content, which
presents problems for undertaking the kinds of experiments that are standard in other areas of
Internet audience research as it would require introducing subjects to online content with
allegedly radicalizing effects and, in fact, almost certainly necessitate exposing youth and young
adults to distressing levels of violence. Progressing research in this area is thus not easy. It is not
impossible either however. There are, of course, a whole host of issues that were not possible to
address in this article, such as widening the range of types of violent online extremism being
studied beyond violent jihadis; engaging in more comparative research, not just across
ideologies, but also groups, countries, languages, and social media platforms; deepening our
analyses to include interviewing and virtual ethnographic approaches; and paying more attention
to gender as a factor in violent online extremism (for more on these, see Conway 2016).
Regardless, the purpose of this chapter was to make five practical suggestions for progressing
research on the role of the Internet in contemporary violent extremism and terrorism with,
perhaps, the side-effect of also kick-starting discussion of colleagues’ additional or preferred
steps in this regard.
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