Policing Cyber Hate, Cyber Threats and Cyber Terrorism

Blakemore, Brian

doi:10.4324/9781315601076

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…As a result, what we are witnessing is Isis being able to tap into the minds of young and impressionable people who are more likely to be watching YouTube and using Facebook and Twitter (Awan, 2013). Moreover, this allows groups like Isis, a direct channel whereby they can play upon individual grievances and dissatisfaction that makes those vulnerable feel as though they are significant and important (Awan and Blakemore, 2012). They are then able to use these videos, tweets, Facebook posts and forums into online radicalisation tools, whereby they are able to glamorise 'extremism' and make it appear as though fighting with them is 'cool'.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media

Awan

2017

Soc

170

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The current crises in Syria has led to a number of Britons travelling abroad to fight with groups such as Isis. Capitalising on this growth, Isis are now increasingly fighting an online cyber war, with the use of slick videos, online messages of hate and even an app that all aim to radicalise and create a new generation of cyber jihadists. These modern day tools are helping Isis spread their propaganda and ideology to thousands of online sympathisers across the world. Indeed, the group has actively been using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to recruit new would be members. This is being done through images and the streaming of violent online viral videos filmed and professionally edited that are targeting young and impressionable people. Portraying a glamorised and 'cool' image, Isis fighters are beginning to act as the new rock stars of global cyber jihad. The Internet therefore is becoming the virtual playground for extremist views to be reinforced and act as an echo chamber. This study analysed 100 different Facebook pages and 50 Twitter user accounts which generated over 2050 results and helped the author create a typology of seven key behaviour characteristics and motivations. The findings in this study confirmed the author's original hypothesis, i.e. online hate is being used by groups such as Isis for a variety of reasons such as recruitment and propaganda. Moreover, this material is coordinated and controlled by Isis as a means for publishing and sending out key messages.

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confidence: 99%

Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media

Awan

2017

Soc

170

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“…Furthermore, even if such cases are reported to the police, it is acknowledged that they have limited resources, and in many cases tracking the crime can present many problems from both a jurisdictional point of view with Internet Service Providers, to the role of free speech and the issue of online anonymity. Thus, for the police it can be like “finding a needle in a virtual haystack” (Awan & Blakemore, , p. 11). The police therefore must look to adopt different policing models, ranging from community‐led policing to intelligence‐led policing, in helping tackle the problem.…”

Section: Methodology and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Demos study () is interesting because their findings would seem to suggest that the EDL have become a web‐based far‐right group that is using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter where it has gained a core group of online sympathizers to target Muslim communities (Awan & Blakemore, ). The Demos study found that on a national scale, 72 percent of supporters for the EDL were under the age of 30, and 36 percent of people were aged between 16 and 20; thus reflecting the movement's desire to attract a “younger” audience on social networking sites such as Facebook.…”

Section: Methodology and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is no universal definition of a hate crime; instead we have a myriad of interpretations, which include statements or terms aimed at targeting a person or person(s) because of their particular religion, gender, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, and ethnicity. Cyber hate, therefore, is the nexus of those communications and concepts where a perpetrator utilizes electronic technology and the convergence of space, movement and behavior in a “safe” virtual environment to “control” and target “opponents” considered to be a threat (Awan & Blakemore, ). This type of control allows the perpetrator to act in a dominant way against groups they deem to be subordinate; often in the case of Muslims, by attacking their faith and ethnicity (Perry, ).…”

Section: What Is Cyber Hate and Online Islamophobia?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Islamophobia and Twitter: A Typology of Online Hate Against Muslims on Social Media

Awan¹

2014

Policy & Internet

163

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The Woolwich attack in May 2013 has led to a spate of hate crimes committed against Muslim communities in the United Kindom. These incidents include Muslim women being targeted for wearing the headscarf and mosques being vandalized. While street level Islamophobia remains an important area of investigation, an equally disturbing picture is emerging with the rise in online anti-Muslim abuse. This article argues that online Islamophobia must be given the same level of attention as street level Islamophobia. It examines 500 tweets from 100 different Twitter users to examine how Muslims are being viewed and targeted by perpetrators of online abuse via the Twitter search engine, and offers a typology of offender characteristics.

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“…There has been a normalisation of extreme situations in an environment visited daily by millions of users to obtain the latest news and to socialise that is also used for propaganda purposes and the recruitment of radicalised subjects (Berger and Morgan 2015). This situation has led European authorities who were already focused on social control (McGuire 2017) to increase social media surveillance and specially to create and use digital tools that employ complex algorithms to detect propaganda and extremist and hate speech content (Awan and Blakemore 2016) as well as to identify individuals in the process of radicalising (Edwards 2017).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hate is in the air! But where? Introducing an algorithm to detect hate speech in digital microenvironments

2018

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With the objective of facilitating and reducing analysis tasks undergone by law enforcement agencies and service providers, and using a sample of digital messages (i.e., tweets) sent via Twitter following the June 2017 London Bridge terror attack (N = 200,880), the present study introduces a new algorithm designed to detect hate speech messages in cyberspace. Unlike traditional designs based on semantic and syntactic approaches, the algorithm hereby implemented feeds solely on metadata, achieving high level of precision. Through the application of the machine learning classification technique Random Forests, our analysis indicates that metadata associated with the interaction and structure of tweets are especially relevant to identify the content they contain. However, metadata of Twitter accounts are less useful in the classification process. Collectively, findings from the current study allow us to demonstrate how digital microenvironment patterns defined by metadata can be used to create a computer algorithm capable of detecting online hate speech. The application of the algorithm and the direction of future research in this area are discussed.

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Policing Cyber Hate, Cyber Threats and Cyber Terrorism

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media

Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media

Islamophobia and Twitter: A Typology of Online Hate Against Muslims on Social Media

Hate is in the air! But where? Introducing an algorithm to detect hate speech in digital microenvironments

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