Violent extremist ecosystems increasingly persist online despite sustained moderation efforts by technology companies. Individuals who formally disengage from extremist movements—whether through incarceration, deradicalisation programmes, or personal exit—often remain connected to, or re-engage with, the same digital environments that previously shaped their worldviews (Morrison et al., 2021; De…
A CNN report uncovered an online ‘Rape Academy,’ and the investigation revealed a global network of men drugging, raping, and filming their unconscious partners—often spouses—and sharing the content online. While Gisèle Pelicot’s case shocked France and the world, this case is not unique, and it revealed that spousal rape networks exist and continue to thrive with new cases being uncovered…
Shifting priorities and budget pressures could bring an end to the company’s experiment in independent governance, sources say
The verdicts in last week’s social media trials have alarmed open-internet advocates. But it’s possible to regulate platform design while also protecting speech
Meta’s CEO said he didn't want to be the speech police. Then he texted Elon Musk
Major social media platforms have intensified content moderation efforts in recent years in response to growing regulatory pressure and concerns about harmful and extremist content. One prominent example of these pressures emerged in January 2026, when ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, announced the sale of its US assets, which were subsequently grouped into a new corporate…
By the end of January 2026, the new social media platform UpScrolled became the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store. After accruing approximately 150,000 users in the first six months of operations, UpScrolled suddenly surged to over 2.5 million users. This platform migration largely occurred at the expense of TikTok. Many users have seemingly expressed disaffection at Oracle […]
Octavia Butler published Parable of the Sower in 1993, but it is set in a version of America in 2024 with a dangerous demagogue at the helm of the country and community all but broken down. She was prophetic. The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, develops Earthseed – a philosophy that worships change as the only true constant force in the world. The adherents of Earthseed worship by paying deep…
“AI can never be AI without humans. It is not artificial intelligence. It’s African intelligence,” Asia said. “Most of these are dirty jobs and most of these jobs have been done here in Africa. And then once you’re done, once a tool is functional, all the communication stops. You get locked out. We are training our own death. We train ChatGPT and it’s killing us slowly.”
Draconian…
Social media has proven to be a significant medium fomenting violent extremism, the circulation and exchange of online hate, and the organising of extremist networks. In the last decade, Canada has witnessed a surge of extremists who post online. To tackle the growth of extremist content online, several global companies are competing to develop accurate Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led…
In November 2025, Indonesia’s National Police Detachment 88 (Densus 88 AT Polri), together with the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), reported the arrest of five adults who administered several radical-terrorist groups on encrypted messaging platforms that included child members. An estimated 110 children, aged 10–18, from various provinces in Indonesia were alleged to be members of these…
Researchers say this emotional numbing – followed by delayed psychological fallout – is a defining feature of content moderation work. “There may be moderators who escape psychological harm, but I’ve yet to see evidence of that,” says Milagros Miceli, a sociologist leading the Data Workers’ Inquiry, a project investigating the roles of workers in AI.
“In terms of risk,” she says, “content…
The US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, generated a short but intense disruption in the online information space, followed by sustained narrative competition involving both state and non-state actors. Across popular, fringe, and encrypted channels, terrorist and violent extremist (TVE) networks embedded content into existing narratives claiming global…