Professor Stuart Macdonald, Dr Ashley Mattheis and Dr Joe Whittaker presented at the fourth Annual Conference of the European Counter-Terrorism Centre (ECTC) Advisory Network on Terrorism and Propaganda, at the Europol Headquarters in The Hague.

The conference was a closed-door event, designed to facilitate the transfer of academic knowledge and research relevant for counter-terrorism to practitioners and policymakers.

It was attended by 250 participants, including: law enforcement, officials from EU Member States and partner countries, EU institutions and international organisations, as well as invited researchers from academia and industry. 

The conference presented an opportunity for CYTREC members to share some of their most recent work with leading policymakers and practitioners, followed by discussions on how their findings can be translated into practical recommendations:

  • Professor Macdonald spoke on the moderation of borderline content; content that does not violate a platform’s terms of service but is nevertheless regarded as potentially concerning or harmful
  • Dr Mattheis looked at how far-right groups engage online in order to increase their networks offline
  • Dr Whittaker spoke about how radicalisation trajectories typically involve an interplay of the online and offline

The other main topics covered by the conference included:

The increasingly blurred line between terrorist violence, violent extremism, non-violent extremism and activism

  • Post-organisational terrorism and hybrid ideologies
  • The nexus between online activity and offline activity and its effects on assessing the threat
  • Online regulation of terrorist and extremist content
  • Current technology and trends
  • Future trends in technology relevant to counter-terrorism

The conference was organised and facilitated by The ECTC Advisory Network on Terrorism and Propaganda, which connects counter-terrorism experts from academia, the private sector and law enforcement.

Through this network, experts exchange knowledge and expertise from their respective fields on recent developments in counter-terrorism. Professor Macdonald is a member of the Steering Committee of the Advisory Network, alongside Professor Maura Conway, also a member of CYTREC and a Professor at Swansea University.

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