Papers by Stuart Macdonald
Journal for Deradicalization, 2024
A key part of the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism framework, the Prevent Strategy is designed ... more A key part of the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism framework, the Prevent Strategy is designed to operate ‘upstream’ to stop people becoming or supporting terrorists. In February 2023 the long-awaited independent review of Prevent reported, evaluating the Strategy against its core objectives. Led by Sir William Shawcross, the report claimed that Prevent’s overarching rationale remains good because the UK continues to face a genuine terrorist threat, but lamented its diversion toward safeguarding and its downplaying of Islamist extremism as the purportedly most pressing source of radicalisation within the UK today. To declare the reception to Shawcross’ report mixed would be generous, with some observers even demanding that the Government withdraw the review. We share many concerns raised by civil society groups and practitioners, and in this piece argue that the Review is fundamentally flawed because of its partial – in the sense of both limited and biased – engagement with the relevant (and extensive) knowledge base that exists around radicalisation, counter radicalisation, and Prevent. More specifically – and with particular attention to the report’s emphasis on ‘ideology’ – we show: (i) that the report suffers from a selective, and problematic, engagement with relevant academic research that poorly represents established knowledge in this area; (ii) that this selective engagement leads to a questionable, and highly contestable, conceptual framing of the report’s core terms and parameters; and, (iii) that this contestable framing has implications for operationalisation of the report’s findings. In doing this, the article makes three core contributions in (i) situating the Shawcross review in relevant historical and policy contexts; (ii) offering original analytical critique of the review’s methodological and political assumptions and findings; and, (iii) extending research on the mechanisms of counter-terrorism review via this new – and underexplored – case study.
VOX-Pol, 2024
It is well established that jihadist groups and their supporters post URLs on online platforms to... more It is well established that jihadist groups and their supporters post URLs on online platforms to outlink to items of propaganda stored on other platforms. Industry initiatives – such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s inclusion of URLs in its hash-sharing database, and Tech Against Terrorism’s Terrorist Content Analytics Platform – have sought to counter this practice. These measures, together with new regulatory regimes and the growing use of decentralised services, raise the question whether jihadist groups’ propaganda dissemination strategies are perhaps being forced to evolve. This study considers whether there is evidence of such an evolution, by examining the means that three jihadist groups (Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab) used to disseminate their propaganda during a two-month period in early 2023. It utilises a dataset of 4,164 content-sharing posts collected from 12 channels across four different platforms: one archiving platform, one decentralised messaging service and two decentralised chat apps. Together, these posts shared a total of 796 distinct items of propaganda. The study examines how each item was shared – by outlink, inlink and/or attached to or embedded in an in-channel post – and discusses the policy implications of the findings.
The focus of this report is the use of automated content-based tools – in particular those that u... more The focus of this report is the use of automated content-based tools – in particular those that use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning – to detect terrorist content online. In broad terms, such tools follow either a matching-based or a classification-based approach. Matching-based approaches rely on a technique known as hashing. The report explains the distinction between cryptographic hashing and perceptual hashing, explaining that tech companies have tended to rely on the latter for the purposes of content moderation. Classification-based approaches typically involve using a large corpus of texts, which have been manually annotated by human reviewers, to train algorithms to predict whether a new item of content belongs to a particular category (e.g., terrorist content). This approach also raises important issues, including the difficulties compiling a dataset to train the algorithms, the temporal, contextual and cultural limitations of machine learning algorithms, and the resultant danger of incorrect outcomes. In the light of this discussion, the report concludes that human input remains necessary and that oversight mechanisms are essential to correct errors and ensure accountability. It also considers capacity-building measures, including off-the-shelf content moderation solutions and collaborative initiatives, as well as potential future development of AI to address some of the challenges identified.
This report was produced as part of the EU-funded Tech Against Terrorism Europe project. Its aims... more This report was produced as part of the EU-funded Tech Against Terrorism Europe project. Its aims to provide an overview of the response of the tech industry to online terrorist and violent extremist content. The report begins with some contextual background, describing the diverse range of online services utilised by terrorists and extremists and the process by which propaganda is disseminated online. The second part details industry responses. As well as referrals from users and law enforcement, it describes the use of AI for proactive detection and collaborative, cross-platform initiatives. The final part describes four wider policy issues: transparency; definitional clarity; the impact on those targeted; and, the use of online data for predictive purposes. The report concludes with a set of six recommendations.
Policy & Internet, 2023
As efforts to identify and remove online terrorist and violent extremist content have intensified... more As efforts to identify and remove online terrorist and violent extremist content have intensified, concern has also grown about so-called lawful but awful content. Various options have been touted for reducing the visibility of this borderline content, including removing it from search and recommendation algorithms, downranking it and redirecting those who search for it. This article contributes to this discussion by considering the moderation of such content, in terms of three sets of values. First, definitional clarity. This is necessary to provide users with fair warning of what content is liable to moderation and to place limits on the discretion of content moderators. Yet, at present, definitions of borderline content are vague and imprecise. Second, necessity and proportionality. While downranking and removal from search and recommender algorithms should be distinguished from deplatforming, tech companies' efforts to deamplify borderline content give rise to many of the same concerns as content removal and account shutdowns. Third, transparency. While a number of platforms now publish their content moderation policies and transparency data reports, these largely focus on violative, not borderline content. Moreover, there remain questions around access to data for independent researchers and transparency at the level of the individual user.
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A Research Agenda for Terrorism Studies, 2023
This chapter considers three types of online data available for researchers. First, it looks at m... more This chapter considers three types of online data available for researchers. First, it looks at machine learning and its use when considering the vast amount of data available to detect indicators of involvement in terrorism. Next, the chapter considers case studies and their use when addressing ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Given the difficulty of research with this population, case studies lend themselves to analysis of an individual terrorist’s behaviour. Finally, netnography (an ethnographic study of online communities) is reviewed with the argument that it has furthered our understanding of radicalisation. This area of research considers the intersection of online and offline relationships in mobilising people towards radicalisation. The chapter concludes with a review of the benefits and weaknesses of these different online research methods.
GNET Report, 2023
Cooperation between law enforcement and tech companies is widely regarded as necessary to tackle ... more Cooperation between law enforcement and tech companies is widely regarded as necessary to tackle online terrorist content. Both sectors have publicly stated their commitment to working together, and there have been examples of mutual cooperation. Yet there are also impediments to such collaboration, including different cultures and operating practices, and there have been high-profile instances of non-cooperation. The informality of existing collaborations has also led to concerns about censorship, mission creep and a lack of accountability and oversight.The focus of this report is how to resolve the impediments to closer law enforcement – tech sector cooperation, in order to realise the benefits of mutual collaboration, while simultaneously addressing concerns about due process and accountability. The report utilises an interview-based methodology to examine the experiences and opinions of personnel from both sectors with first-hand experience of mutual cooperation, and provide an empirically grounded insight to this under-researched topic. It concludes with four recommendations: the development of an experience exchange programme; the implementation of a takedown‑shutdown counterterrorism policing protocol; a joint upstreaming programme founded on a proactive preventative ethos; and the development of joint strategic research requirements.
and Cultural Studies. The project has four primary objectives: (1) To further understanding among... more and Cultural Studies. The project has four primary objectives: (1) To further understanding amongst the scientific community by engaging in original research on the concept, threat and possible responses to cyberterrorism. (2) To facilitate global networking activities around this research theme. (3) To engage with policymakers, opinion formers, citizens and other stakeholders at all stages of the research process, from data collection to dissemination. (4) To do the above within a multidisciplinary and pluralist context that draws on expertise from the physical and social sciences.
The research conducted by the ECTC Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda between October ... more The research conducted by the ECTC Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda between October 2016 and April 2017 was presented in the 1st ECTC Conference on Online Terrorist Propaganda (10-11 April 2017) and resulted in the following publication.
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2021
International Journal of Law in Context, 2019
Social-media companies make extensive use of artificial intelligence in their efforts to remove a... more Social-media companies make extensive use of artificial intelligence in their efforts to remove and block terrorist content from their platforms. This paper begins by arguing that, since such efforts amount to an attempt to channel human conduct, they should be regarded as a form of regulation that is subject to rule-of-law principles. The paper then discusses three sets of rule-of-law issues. The first set concerns enforceability. Here, the paper highlights the displacement effects that have resulted from the automated removal and blocking of terrorist content and argues that regard must be had to the whole social-media ecology, as well as to jihadist groups other than the so-called Islamic State and other forms of violent extremism. Since rulebylaw is only a necessary, and not a sufficient, condition for compliance with rule-of-law values, the paper then goes on to examine two further sets of issues: the clarity with which social-media companies define terrorist content and the ad...
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2019
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2018
In addition, a total of fifty-three other speakers presented their research into terrorists' use ... more In addition, a total of fifty-three other speakers presented their research into terrorists' use of social media and responses to this phenomenon. These speakers were drawn from a range of academic disciplines including law, criminology, psychology, security studies, politics, international relations, media and communication, history, war studies, English, linguistics, Islamic studies, and computer science. This emphasis on interdisciplinarity is evident in the articles in this special issue. A number of the speakers were also early career researchers or postgraduate research students; this emphasis on nurturing young researchers is also reflected in the contents of this special issue. The articles chosen for inclusion in the special issue have a focus on the so-called Islamic State (IS) and their online activity. Not all the articles have IS as their exclusive focus, but all those with, for example, a comparative remit have IS as one of the comparator cases. The TASM conference took place at around the same time as IS's loss of their Iraqi "capital" of Mosul, but some months prior to the loss of their Syrian "capital," Raqqa. A slight but steady overall downward trajectory in IS's online content output could be apprehended over the course of 2017, with a precipitous decline on the October loss of Raqqa. 2 Output quantities have since rebounded, although not (yet?) to
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Papers by Stuart Macdonald
Recent years have witnessed a small, but growing, collection of book length publications dealing with cyber-terrorism or cognate issues. These existing books mostly take a single perspective: technological, political, or sociological. In contrast, Terrorism Online utilises a multi-disciplinary framework to provide a borader introduction to debates and developments that have largely been conducted in isolation to date.
Drawing together a range of key academics in the field, this edited volume is organised around three broad themes. First, how – and why – do terrorists engage with the Internet, digital technologies and cyberspace? Second, what threat do these various activities pose, and to whom? And, third, how might these activities be prevented, deterred or responded to? Exploring these themes, the book engages with a range of contemporary case studies and different forms of terrorism: from lone-actor to state-based. The book’s engagement with questions of law, politics, technology and beyond is intended to offer a holistic approach to this subject matter, and provides the unique selling point of the book.
This book will be of interest to students of cyberterrorism, security studies and IR in general.
With contributions from distinguished experts with backgrounds including international relations, law, engineering, computer science, public policy and politics, Cyberterrorism: Understanding, Assessment and Response offers a cutting edge analysis of contemporary debate on, and issues surrounding, cyberterrorism. This global scope and diversity of perspectives ensure it is of great interest to academics, students, practitioners, policymakers and other stakeholders with an interest in cyber security.