A Radicalisation Framework for the Monitoring and Understanding of Extremist Content Online

The concept of cybersecurity has predominantly been focused on the security of information systems; however, it is increasingly becoming more inclusive of the security and even wellbeing of users. Cybersecurity, on this definition, expands from the protection of critical infrastructures, such as the electric power grid and air traffic control systems, to the security of individual internet users, but while also protecting those same users' digital rights and freedoms. The power of strategies of disinformation and misinformation to manipulate is coming more to the fore. A wide variety of malicious actors, from states with traditional geopolitical interests to financially motivated information entrepreneurs, are today weaponizing the Internet, particularly social media, to achieve and forward their goals.

The past couple of decades have demonstrated that the Internet has become an integral tool for all types of organisational activity. However, this has also emphasised how extremists have exploited the benefits afforded by the Internet to enhance their recruitment campaigns and content distribution abilities. The practice of producing and promoting extremist content online is not unique to any particular extremist organisation; rather, it is a strategic shift that has been adopted by several notable groups. This increasing reliance on the Internet has allowed extremists to distribute their propaganda content more easily, provided the ability to communicate with others at a much larger scale, and given a perceived sense of anonymity and decentralisation. This research will aim to create a set of technical tools that can be used to form an online radicalisation framework by law enforcement agencies for the monitoring and understanding of online extremist content and activity. This will help to inform how extremists from various ideologies behave across different online platforms, and how more effective counter extremism strategies can be constructed for online spaces.

In particular, this project will aim to computationally analyse online extremist content from both radical Islamist extremists and far-right extremists, and consider the efficacy of the radicalisation techniques adopted by them across various online platforms, including mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter, as well as other, less mainstream platforms such as Telegram, Reddit, Gab and 8Chan to gain a more comprehensive idea of how extremist content is tailored to suit the audiences of particular platforms. Understanding persuasive techniques will help inform effective countermeasures and discussions on internet regulation and censorship. Furthermore, this will give a unique insight into which individuals are susceptible to radicalisation and how we can better detect and then remove extremist content. The methodology of this project will involve data gathering (mainly through scraping the online platforms listed above), using machine learning and natural language processing techniques and tools to analyse the data gathered, and finally creating tools to efficiently visualise the results from this so as to be accessible for law enforcement agencies. Collaborative efforts with such agencies, including the Home Office, will be made to ensure the tools produced from this project meet their requirements when dealing with online extremism.

Exploring and understanding what radicalisation actually is and how it is carried out over the internet can help to identify how our information systems, especially social media, can be governed more efficiently to regulate content being shared and prevent them from being misused in the future, whilst simultaneously balancing a user's right to freedom of speech. This project falls within the EPSRC 'Global Uncertainties' research area. More specifically, it aligns with the core areas of 'Cyber-security', 'Terrorism', and 'Transnational organised crime'.

It is part of the nature of Cyber Security - and a key reason for the urgency in developing new research approaches - that it now is a concern of every section of society, and so the successful CDT will have a very broad impact indeed. We will ensure impact for:

* The IT industry; vendors of hardware and software, and within this the IT Security industry;

* High value/high assurance sectors such as banking, bio-medical domains, and critical infrastructure, and more generally the CISO community across many industries;

* The mobile systems community, mobile service providers, handset and platform manufacturers, those developing the technologies of the internet of things, and smart cities;

* Defence sector, MoD/DSTL in particular, defence contractors, and the intelligence community;

* The public sector more generally, in its own activities and in increasingly important electronic engagement with the citizen;

* The not-for-profit sector, education, charities, and NGOs - many of whom work in highly contended contexts, but do not always have access to high-grade cyber defensive skills.

Impact in each of these will be achieved in fresh elaborations of threat and risk models; by developing new fundamental design approaches; through new methods of evaluation, incorporating usability criteria, privacy, and other societal concerns; and by developing prototype and proof-of-concept solutions exhibiting these characteristics. These impacts will retain focus through the way that the educational and research programme is structured - so that the academic and theoretical components are directed towards practical and anticipated problems motivated by the sectors listed here.