1. Canadian ISIS: Multiple sources have told Globalnews.ca the father and son arrested for an alleged terror plot recorded a video of themselves holding weapons in front of an ISIS flag. globalnews.ca/news/10673534/…

If you want to understand the role that social media companies played in facilitating, and some cases promoting, misinformation that led to this week's far-right violence, I'd thoroughly recommend reading Institute for Strategic Dialogue's brilliant analysis published today👇 isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

In recent years, right-wing extremist groups like Patriot Front and Active Clubs have strengthened defenses against law enforcement and policy makers. ISD analysis finds how their different organizational strategies have achieved this. isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

the best genre of Warren Zevon song is “no one on earth is cooler than this weird guy i made up”. the second best is “do any women here want to kill me or do i have to do everything myself”

On the UK's far-right riots: Maria Ressa, Jacob Davey and I spoke to Carole Cadwalladr for her excellent piece in The Guardian. Here it is - highly recommended reading: theguardian.com/media/article/…

While pundits still circle around has-been extremist groups like the Proud Boys, regionalized white supremacist fight clubs and activist groups have flourished in the US. This ISD Dispatch looks at two models of how those groups are organized. isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

I'm heartbroken to say I'm one of the people affected by the cuts at Axios today. I have a lot to figure out and will be taking some downtime, but if anyone in the U.S. or Canada is hiring, feel free to reach out.

I helped The Economist analyse the UK riots and the evolution of Britain's far-right. Read the piece here: economist.com/britain/2024/0…

A new report from Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “Online Gendered Abuse and Disinformation During the 2024 South African Elections.” A must-read. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

Two of 3 teenage suspects arrested over a foiled IS-inspired plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna are believed to have been radicalized online, highlighting once again the role of social media platforms in radicalization. isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

Richard's the best. Go learn from him

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue gave me an exclusive look at some of their research and a report about how Terrorgram (designated terror group) is using a Steve Bannon acct with 63k subscribers on Telegram to seed violence. An admin also claims Bannon is “involved.” theguardian.com/us-news/articl…

Today marks one year of 404 Media. We have learned a lot in that time, but let me stress: we are showing it is possible to run a sustainable business for impactful journalism. If you are thinking of going independent, the infrastructure exists: 404media.co/what-we-learne…

"How Telegram fosters online extremism: The under-regulated platform lacks transparency. The Southport riots remind us why this matters." For The New Statesman my Institute for Strategic Dialogue colleague Jacob Davey and I co-wrote a piece on Telegram, its exploitation by extremists, dangerous group

At VICE News we built an extremism desk with some of the best beat reporters in the business who covered this topic in a way no other publication was even coming close to. Then the bosses paid themselves huge bonuses a day before firing everyone. Great industry.

Hey folks, we're hiring for a role on our comms team at Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Come work with me and some of the best analysts researching extremism and disinformation around. isdglobal.recruitee.com/o/communicatio…

The Department of Justice identified and charged leaders of the "Terrorgram Collective": a longstanding effort to try to incite far-right mass killers and terrorists via publications on the Telegram app. This will send a shockwave through the violent white supremacist movement

ISD has published a good amount of material about Terrorgram, for those who are looking to understand what the hell this press release is talking about. Here's a recent item from our own Steven Rai: isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

This is big news: Terrorgram has been a major fixture of my reporting, along with Mack Lamoureux when we were at VICE together, going back to 2019. The DOJ looks like it’s increasingly busy going after the far-right/Natsec threats as November looms.

holy shit - over a year after reports from HuffPost & LEFT COAST RIGHT WATCH unmasked a leader of the Terrorgram Collective as Dallas Humber, the DOJ has announced she’s been arrested on 15 counts, including for soliciting hate crimes / the murder of federal officials justice.gov/opa/pr/leaders…