CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Parker, Nicholas |
|---|---|
| Title | Terrorism in the Age of Indecency: Social Media's Role in the Convergence of Far-right and Jihadist Terror Tactics |
| Summary | Soft targets, simple plans and readily accessible weapons—regardless of ideology, these have become the common features of the modern lone actor terror attack. Since the emergence and widespread adoption of social media in the mid-2010s, far-right extremists in North America and Jihadists across Europe have become remarkably similar in their tactics and targets. Within the lone actor paradigm, online radicalization abounds and, with increasing frequency, violent acts survive in online circles long after the perpetrator has been killed or captured. This thesis places social media at the heart of a pattern of tactical convergence that has occurred across far-right and Islamic radicalism. It finds that social media enables mentally-ill individuals to become radicalized at a rate far higher than in the past, and that the attendant consequences of this shift contribute to the cross-ideological tactical convergence seen today. It also demonstrates how the decline of successful group-based attacks, the proliferation of violent extremist content on the internet and the rise of digital extremist communities have re-enforced this phenomenon. Although far-right and Islamic terrorists remain distinct in their ideology, social media has played a transformative role in de-emphasizing its importance when it comes to why terrorists choose the tactics and targets that they do. |
| Supervisor | LaRoche, Christopher |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/parker_nick.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University