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Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy

Chamin Herath, Joe Whittaker Orcid Logo

Terrorism and Political Violence, Volume: 35, Issue: 5, Pages: 1 - 22

Swansea University Author: Joe Whittaker Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1080/09546553.2021.1998008

Abstract

Online radicalisation to terrorism has become a pervasive policy concern over the last decade. However, as a concept it lacks clarity and empirical support. In this article, we add an empirical and theoretical lens to this problem by analysing the trajectories of 231 Islamic State terrorists. We use...

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Published in: Terrorism and Political Violence
ISSN: 0954-6553 1556-1836
Published: Informa UK Limited 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58457
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first_indexed 2021-10-25T09:27:22Z
last_indexed 2023-01-11T14:39:04Z
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spelling v2 58457 2021-10-25 Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy 112ed59957393e783f913443ec80faab 0000-0001-7342-6369 Joe Whittaker Joe Whittaker true false 2021-10-25 CSSP Online radicalisation to terrorism has become a pervasive policy concern over the last decade. However, as a concept it lacks clarity and empirical support. In this article, we add an empirical and theoretical lens to this problem by analysing the trajectories of 231 Islamic State terrorists. We use cluster analyses to create typologies of individuals’ different online and offline antecedent behaviours, including the ways in which they engaged in networks with co-ideologues and how they prepared for their events. The findings suggest four types of pathway within our dataset: 1) The ‘Integrated’ pathway which has high network engagement both online and offline, mostly made up of individuals that plotted as part of a group; 2) The ‘Encouraged’ pathway contains individuals that acted more in the online domain at the expense of offline; 3) Terrorists in the ‘Isolated’ pathway are defined by a lack of interaction across either domain; 4) The ‘Enclosed pathway encompassed actors that displayed greater offline network activity, but still utilised the Internet for planning their activity. These typologies help to move beyond the dichotomy of online or offline radicalisation; there remain few individuals that either exclusively use the Internet or do not use it at all. Rather, we can conceptualise Internet usage on a spectrum in which these four typologies all sit. Journal Article Terrorism and Political Violence 35 5 1 22 Informa UK Limited 0954-6553 1556-1836 terrorism; extremism; online radicalisation; radicalisation 22 11 2021 2021-11-22 10.1080/09546553.2021.1998008 COLLEGE NANME Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy COLLEGE CODE CSSP Swansea University 2023-07-11T14:25:34.3921707 2021-10-25T09:42:41.6159427 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy Chamin Herath 1 Joe Whittaker 0000-0001-7342-6369 2 58457__21286__87d12a54e7884c2bbde8a2abee81375f.pdf NONBLIND Moving Beyond a Simple Dichotomy-converted.pdf 2021-10-25T10:26:08.3387625 Output 492118 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true 2023-05-22T00:00:00.0000000 Released under the terms of a CC BY-NC license true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
title Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
spellingShingle Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
Joe Whittaker
title_short Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
title_full Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
title_fullStr Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
title_full_unstemmed Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
title_sort Online Radicalisation: Moving beyond a Simple Dichotomy
author_id_str_mv 112ed59957393e783f913443ec80faab
author_id_fullname_str_mv 112ed59957393e783f913443ec80faab_***_Joe Whittaker
author Joe Whittaker
author2 Chamin Herath
Joe Whittaker
format Journal article
container_title Terrorism and Political Violence
container_volume 35
container_issue 5
container_start_page 1
publishDate 2021
institution Swansea University
issn 0954-6553
1556-1836
doi_str_mv 10.1080/09546553.2021.1998008
publisher Informa UK Limited
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
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description Online radicalisation to terrorism has become a pervasive policy concern over the last decade. However, as a concept it lacks clarity and empirical support. In this article, we add an empirical and theoretical lens to this problem by analysing the trajectories of 231 Islamic State terrorists. We use cluster analyses to create typologies of individuals’ different online and offline antecedent behaviours, including the ways in which they engaged in networks with co-ideologues and how they prepared for their events. The findings suggest four types of pathway within our dataset: 1) The ‘Integrated’ pathway which has high network engagement both online and offline, mostly made up of individuals that plotted as part of a group; 2) The ‘Encouraged’ pathway contains individuals that acted more in the online domain at the expense of offline; 3) Terrorists in the ‘Isolated’ pathway are defined by a lack of interaction across either domain; 4) The ‘Enclosed pathway encompassed actors that displayed greater offline network activity, but still utilised the Internet for planning their activity. These typologies help to move beyond the dichotomy of online or offline radicalisation; there remain few individuals that either exclusively use the Internet or do not use it at all. Rather, we can conceptualise Internet usage on a spectrum in which these four typologies all sit.
published_date 2021-11-22T14:25:30Z
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