Prevent Violent Extremism: A Research Portal

Project Title

Social Media Target Audience Analysis: Measuring the Impact of Counter Narrative Resources for Educational Professionals in Canada

Lead / Author

The SecDev Foundation

Relevant Dates

Portal created in 2016.

Description

The Prevent Violent Extremism research portal brings together knowledge resources on violent extremism and social media. It is meant to help understand how social media can become involved with violent extremist threats, as well as to provide information about how social media tools and tactics can support efforts to counter violent extremism (CVE). Beyond CVE researchers, the portal and its contents are intended to inform the work of law enforcement, intelligence agencies, CVE practitioners, and community workers, among others looking to understand violent extremist use of social media.

The impetus behind the creation of this portal is the growing recognition of the uses and impact of social media in particular, and the Internet in general, by violent extremist movements. As noted by The SecDev Foundation, social media can play a multifaceted role in amplifying the reach of violent extremist groups and the resonance or impact of their messaging.

At the same time, as noted on the site, the extent to which the Internet and social media shape processes of radicalization leading to violence is contested, as is the efficacy of using social media and related analytics for preventing violent extremism. Thus, the platform acts as a repository and reference guide to support the ongoing efforts better understand the online aspects of violent extremism and what works in social media-based efforts at prevention and how to measure impact. It is not only meant to promote and aid future research, but to facilitate dialogue on key debates.

Select Findings

The Prevent Violent Extremism research portal is divided into five sections. In addition to the homepage, the website includes an About section which provides background information regarding the portal, including several SecDev publications funded by the Kaniskha Project. A Methodologies section gathers relevant articles, papers, journals and studies into themes, based on the research focus, specifically: Event Detection, such as to quickly recognize and learn about terrorism events ; Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, including efforts to build ‘learning machines’ that can rapidly find meaning in large amounts of data; Netnography, where the emphasis is on gaining ‘cultural’ insights about the sociology of online communities; Predictive Analytics and Data Mining, which can involve statistical analysis of ‘big data’ to find patterns likely to repeat; Social Network Analysis, which aims to map and understand the nature of social relationships; and, Crowd Sourced Information, involving efforts to draw information from the general population.

The Portal’s Interviews section features video interviews with leading experts on radicalization to violence and related topics. Videos cover issue such as radicalization as a social phenomenon, foreign fighter returnees, and police responses to radicalization. These videos provide perspective and guidance on how issues related to radicalization should be discussed and researched, towards supporting design of effective solutions. In addition to material found on the portal, the website also links out to a number of related initiatives, some of which were funded through the Kanishka Project.

Further Information

Prevent Violent Extremism: A Research Portal

Related Initiatives

“CounterExtremism.org,” Institute for Strategic Dialogue, https://www.counterextremism.org/

The SecDev Group, “Social Media, Online Networks and the Prevention of Violent Extremism: Kanishka Research and Lessons Learned. Summary Overview,” 2014.

“Extreme Dialogue,” Institute for Strategic Dialogue, http://extremedialogue.org/

Theme(s)

Keyword(s)

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