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Posts tagged digital radicalization
Discord and the Pentagon's Watchdog: Countering Extremism in the U.S. Military

By Amy C. Gaudion

In his 2022 book, Ward Farnsworth crafts a metaphor from the lead-pipe theory for the fall of Rome to consider how rage and misinformation traveling through today’s technology-enabled pipes are poisoning our civic engagement and threatening our governmental structures: “We have built networks for the delivery of information––the internet, and especially social media. These networks too, are a marvel. But they also carry a kind of poison with them. The mind fed from those sources learns to subsist happily on quick reactions, easy certainties, one-liners, and rage.” This Article carries the metaphor into a new context and considers what should be done when the poison being transported through the digital pipes is directed at members of the U.S. military. While extremism in the U.S. military is not a new threat, the events of January 6, 2021, brought the threat into much sharper focus. It exposed three preexisting trends, each sitting in plain sight but not yet woven together. These trends include a growing acceptance of extremist views and ideologies in U.S. military and veteran communities, an increase in violent extremist acts committed by individuals with military backgrounds, and the enhanced use of digital platforms by extremist groups to target their messaging to and strengthen their recruitment of individuals with military experience. To return to the metaphor, the extremist poison is teeming through the pipes at an alarming rate, and the number of pipes has increased to include social media platforms, encrypted chat tools, gaming platforms, podcasts, and music streaming apps, including YouTube, Discord, Gab, Telegram, and WhatsApp, among many others. In offering these observations, the author is mindful of not overstating the threat and takes seriously warnings as to the adverse consequences that follow from hyperbole and exaggeration. Indeed, a fundamental difficulty is the lack of understanding as to scope and scale of the extremism threat in the U.S. military. This Article attempts to draw the contours of that threat, exposes the structural and legal obstacles that make countering extremism in the military such a fraught exercise, and identifies actors, tools, and mechanisms—beyond the conventional options––able to overcome these long-standing structural and institutional obstacles.

Indiana Law Journal | Vol. 100:1743 | 2025, Penn State Dickinson Law Research Paper 10-2025

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Prevent, Detect, and React: A Framework for Countering Violent Extremism on Gaming Surfaces

By Galen Lamphere-Englund

GIFCT hosts Working Groups annually to bring together international experts across sectors to work together in helping tech companies counter terrorist and violent extremist exploitation online. GIFCT's GCoP Working Group ran from May 2024 through January 2025, with the aim of providing a space to share insights and feedback on how gameplay spaces could evolve safety work, review safety policies, tools, and practices, and anticipate evolving safety risks. The following document, Interventions for Countering Violent Extremism on Gaming Surfaces, is a series of explanations that detail various intervention strategies, structured across three stages of Prevent, Detect, and React. Each stage outlines specific interventions that gaming platforms can implement, organized by clearly described objectives (“How”) and supported by real-world examples with links to resources (“Case Studies”). Many thanks to the 2024 GIFCT GCoP members for sharing their expertise, particularly to Linda Schlegel (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; PRIF) and Rachel Kowert, Ph.D. (Discord) for their helpful suggestions. How to Use This Resource Each section below presents a strategic goal (Prevent, Detect, or React), specific objectives that support that goal (such as “Design Games and Gaming Experiences With User Safety in Mind”), and practical case studies with linked resources. The examples given should be seen as illustrative, not exhaustive. GIFCT’s academic research arm, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), regularly shares the latest research related to gaming and gaming-adjacent platforms, which can be found here. Additionally, the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), where GIFCT is a founding member, distributes resources here. GIFCT offers tailored guidance and support to any online gameplay company seeking to prevent TVE from exploiting their platform.   

(Washington, D.C.: Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, Year 4 Working Groups. 2025. 28p.

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Exposure to and Sharing of Fringe or Radical Content Online

By Timothy Cubitt and Anthony Morgan

Using a large, national survey of online Australians, we measured unintentional and intentional exposure to fringe or radical content and groups online.

Two in five respondents (40.6%) reported being exposed to material they described as fringe, unorthodox or radical. One-quarter of these respondents (23.2%) accessed the content intentionally. One-third (29.9%) said the content they had seen depicted violence.

Fringe or radical content was often accessed through messages, discussions and posts online. Mainstream social media and messaging platforms were the platforms most frequently used to share fringe or radical content. Being a member of a group promoting fringe or radical content was associated with increased sharing of that content with other internet users.

Efforts to restrict access to radical content and groups online, especially on mainstream platforms, may help reduce intentional and unintentional exposure to and sharing of that content.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2024. 17p.

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