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Disrupting Digital Dissonance: Exploring the Efficacy of AI in Tackling Extreme Right Content on TikTok
Eastwood, Georgina Emily Louise ; Fitzgerald, James (vedoucí práce) ; Špelda, Petr (oponent)
The possible future of artificial intelligence (AI) in content moderation is examined in this dissertation, with a focus placed on countering extreme right material on the social network platform TikTok. As social media develops as a powerful communication and information distribution tool, user safety and free speech face severe threats from the dissemination of dangerous content, particularly extremist beliefs. The tremendous volume of user-generated content on TikTok challenges traditional content moderation techniques, requiring more efficacious and scalable solutions. Additionally, this research emphasises possible effects on global security that transcend social media. Digitally distributed extreme right content has the potential to contribute to radicalisation and poses security risks on a worldwide scale. Recognising how effectively AI- driven solutions aid in restricting potentially harmful content can assist with more significant initiatives to fight radicalisation and advance digital security on a global level. The significance of this dissertation is further reinforced by its emphasis on the 2022 Digital Services Act of the European Commission, which highlights the duty of Internet platforms to combat dangerous content. This study uses a case study to offer important new insights into...
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The instrumentalisation of child trafficking: Competing discursive constructions between the US Government and QAnon?
Borg, Alessia ; Paterson, Ian (vedoucí práce) ; Fitzgerald, James (oponent)
Child trafficking has been a primary interest of international actors. The United States has steered its legislation and anchored it in a solid treat narrative. Recent years have seen QAnon construct a competitive framing of the issue. This paper addressed how the established securitisation of the United States was disrupted by QAnon's intervention. It inquired about the nature of the disruption and questioned whether and how both actors entered a competitive securitisation dynamic over child trafficking. This has been done through the lens of discourse analysis to operationalise securitisation theory and evaluate the prominence of its three criteria: the framing of the threat, audience acceptance and subsequent measures. It found that the United States securitisation was being contested by QAnon's attempt at securitising the issue from below. While the attempt has only been partially successful, QAnon successfully established itself as a legitimate competing narrative actor. However, adherence to QAnon's narrative is on the rise and attention should be given to its evolution to prevent further damage to the government's rule of Law. The discursive competition processes have also impacted the perception of child trafficking and its subsequent mitigation by perpetrating stereotypes and...
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Death as a Strategic Tool: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Targeted Killings in the War in Afghanistan
Diaz, Michael Augustus ; Ludvík, Jan (vedoucí práce) ; Fitzgerald, James (oponent)
of Dissertation Death as a Strategic Tool: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Targeted Killings in the War in Afghanistan University of Glasgow: 2704381D Dublin City University: 21109397 Charles University: 77557277 The War in Afghanistan conducted by the United States, with international allies, endured from 2001 to 2021 due to the intricacies of combating terrorist organizations, insurgent groups, and rebuilding the systems of government for the country. During this conflict, one of the most prominent tactics to combat terrorists and insurgents was targeted killings, which refers to when an individual is intentionally targeted by an air strike or a capture kill mission. However, this method of dealing with terrorist and insurgents in the War in Afghanistan is far from perfect. This research examines the efficacy of targeted killings using a mixed-methods approach by incorporating a correlation analysis of the phenomenon and detailed case studies of key targeted killing throughout the conflict. Overall, the practice is found to be relatively ineffective against preventing terrorist or insurgent activity in the long-term but somewhat effective in the short- term. However, the temporary benefits of targeted killings have to be properly exploited to make progress at the strategic level.
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Assessing the Degree of Extremism of the Incel Community Online: A Comparative Analysis of Social Media Platforms
Brigati, Maria Sole ; Fitzgerald, James (vedoucí práce) ; Střítecký, Vít (oponent)
The term "incel" is an abbreviation for "involuntary celibate" and is used to describe a man who desires a romantic or sexual relationship with women but is unable to obtain one. They blame women for their inability, claiming females reject them solely on the basis of their appearance. This belief led many of them to develop misogynistic views, which they express in hateful and degrading speeches or, in the most extreme cases, by glorifying violence against women and sexually active men. The majority of the Incel community exists online. The majority of users report having little to no social life in the real world, which is why they seek out online communities where they can interact with people experiencing similar challenges. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the extremism levels of the incel community on two social media platforms. The first one is the most popular forum in the community, Incels.is, while the second one is the relatively new Twitter community "Incel Talk". For the purpose of the analysis, the author will perform content analysis and critical discourse analysis of the posts shared by users on both social media platforms between October 5 and December 31. She collects more than 640 tweets for Twitter and more than 13,000 for Incels.is. The findings indicate...
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Stand against the wiles of the devil. Interpreting QAnon as a Christian extremist movement
Miotto, Nicolò ; Fitzgerald, James (vedoucí práce) ; Střítecký, Vít (oponent)
QAnon has become a prominent domestic security threat in recent years due to the involvement of its supporters in violent terrorist and criminal acts. Numerous QAnon supporters participated in the 2021 U.S. Capitol Storming and the 2022 Freedom Convoys in Canada, committing criminal violent and non-violent acts. When analysing these events, researchers have observed that numerous QAnon supporters have been influenced by religious and spiritual beliefs, emphasising the importance of QAnon's religious dimensions and their impact on individuals' radicalisation. However, academics have not explored such religious dimensions by drawing upon the body of literature from the field of religious studies, thus overlooking core facets of QAnon's religious dimensions. By conducting an empirically driven research based on the collection and analysis of QAnon religious imagery downloaded from QAnon- related Telegram channels, this dissertation aims to analyse QAnon's religious dimensions and hypothesise about the potential impact of religious extremism on its affiliates' propensity to violence. The visual analysis conducted by applying both semiotics and hermeneutics to QAnon religious imagery shows that QAnon can be labelled as a Christian extremist movement that shares commonalties with the religious phenomena...
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(Un)masked antisemitic conspiracy theories: Analysing the presence of far-right narratives in Italian anti-vax echo-chambers on Twitter during the Covid-19 pandemic
Farucci, Marco ; Fitzgerald, James (vedoucí práce) ; Střítecký, Vít (oponent)
Conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic have emerged as soon as the global health emergency started. They have found fertile ground on social media networks as they facilitated their proliferation enabled by their filtering, echo- chambers, and polarisation mechanisms. Although social media's role as amplifier of emotionally charged conspiracy theories is undeniable, there are several, complementing factors, that have led people to spread them. Notably, the socio-technological aspect of our modern post-truth era, the structure of the web 2.0 and the consequent cybercascades of mis/disinformation feature among the most relevant drivers into the dissemination of conspiracy theories online. The resulting uncertainty and mass anxiety caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, aggravated by these factors, have been exploited by extremist organisations to normalise hatred towards what is considered to be the antagonistic Other. This has been particularly evinced by far-right organisations, which have historically targeted Jews and have adapted their core antisemitic narratives to Covid-19 conspiracy theories. Crucially, the New World Order and the Great Reset have been particularly successful conspiracy theories to spread antisemitic narratives, though in the concealed form of anti-establishment and...
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UK information sharing and counterterrorism after Brexit
Hughes, Caitlin ; Heuser, Beatrice (vedoucí práce) ; Fitzgerald, James (oponent)
The UK's decision to leave the European Union has had a vast amount of consequences for all of those involved. Even now, Brexit continues to plague the headlines of both UK and EU newspapers and will continue to for some time. As a result of the negotiations between the UK and the EU, the UK lost access to key information sharing systems that assisted it in its counterterrorism efforts, namely Europol, the Schengen Information System and the European Arrest Warrant. The loss of these specific networks means that the UK has had to draw up new counterterrorism plans, as it used these networks more than any of its European counterparts. This dissertation will focus on these three entities and assess that the UK has lost a great deal of valuable cooperation opportunities and information as a result of Brexit. It will then argue that despite a significant amount of concern, both by international and UK government officials, not enough has been done as of yet to replace these crucial networks. This dissertation will also argue that the UK may attempt to rely on the other allies it has in the field of counterterrorism but, as things stand, no significant agreements have been made and this will prove to be a problem for UK counterterrorism if something does not change.
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(De)Securitization of Migration in Germany
Moormann, Britta ; Karyotis, Georgios (vedoucí práce) ; Karásek, Tomáš (oponent) ; Fitzgerald, James (oponent)
This research explores the (de)securitization of migration in the German case through qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). By coding multiple primary sources of speech acts of two actors from the political elite, the competing frames of (de)securitization governing migration will be investigated. Subject to this research are the political parties The Left (Die Linke) and Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland [AfD]) representing sentiments of the most left and right parties on the governmental level of German politics. Analysing speech acts framing migration post 2015, this research identifies the construction of and, emphasis on the security-migration nexus under consideration of characteristic patterns of political communication and the theory of migrantization. This research further exemplifies that neither of the frames of (de)securitization is just a snapshot. To the contrary, both frames need to be elucidated in order to reflect contemporary dynamics of polarized political discourse. Uncovering the security-migration nexus, this research finds that the AfD supports a securitizing and The Left a desecuritizing frame of migration. However, both parties' speech acts are supported to varying degrees. Whereas the speech acts of the AfD receive a high degree of acceptance by...
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Countering Religious Extremism and Online Radicalization in Uzbekistan
Khakimov, Farrukh ; Anceschi, Luca (vedoucí práce) ; Fitzgerald, James (oponent) ; Aslan, Emil (oponent)
From the early days of its independence the Republic of Uzbekistan considered religious extremism and terrorism as the most serious threat to national and regional security. During the 1990s internationally designated terrorist organizations: "The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan" (IMU), "The Islamic Jihad Union" (IJU)1 , Central Asian branch of "Hizbut-Tahrir al Islamiya" (HT) and other radical groups emerged in Uzbekistan as opponents to secular political system of the newly independent state - Republic of Uzbekistan. Due to strict counterterrorism policy of Uzbekistan the level of the threat in the country steadily declined, however, religious extremism and radicalism have not disappeared as major radical organizations moved to neighbouring Afghanistan and Tajikistan; some of which still conduct covert activities within the country and abroad. In addition, the recent emergence of different radical militant groups in Afghanistan such as Katibat al-Imam al-Bukhari (KIB) and Katibat Tavhid wal Jihod (KTJ), which have returned to the region from Syrian civil war, caused concerns for Central Asian countries, especially for Uzbekistan as these radical militant groups are fighting in the north of the Afghanistan, not far from Uzbekistan's border (Cornell & Zenn, 2018). Moreover, with the development of...
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