What Is Bitchute? Characterizing the ``Free Speech'' Alternative To

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

What Is Bitchute? Characterizing the ``Free Speech'' Alternative To What is BitChute? Characterizing the “Free Speech” Alternative to YouTube Milo Trujillo∗ Cody Buntain Benjamin D. Horne Maurício Gruppi∗ [email protected] [email protected] (trujim,gouvem)@rpi.edu New Jersey Institute of Technology Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Newark, New Jersey Troy, New York Troy, New York ABSTRACT Warning: This paper contains disturbing and offensive language. While In this paper, we characterize the content and discourse on BitChute, we try to discuss some of the more disturbing material at a high level, we a social video-hosting platform. Launched in 2017 as an alternative do not censor language exposed in analysis. to YouTube, BitChute joins an ecosystem of alternative, low con- tent moderation platforms, including Gab, Voat, Minds, and 4chan. 1 INTRODUCTION Uniquely, BitChute is the first of these alternative platforms tofo- In recent years, the online media ecosystem has gained significant cus on video content and is growing in popularity. Our analysis attention due to its role in false information spread, radicalizing reveals several key characteristics of the platform. We find that ideological extremists, and perpetuating malicious hate speech. Due only a handful of channels receive any engagement, and almost all to these rising concerns, several social media platforms, including of those channels contain conspiracies or hate speech. This high Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit, have begun efforts to mitigate both rate of hate speech on the platform as a whole, much of which is false information and hate speech through a variety of methods, anti-Semitic, is particularly concerning. Our results suggest that including banning users, quarantining communities, and demone- BitChute has a higher rate of hate speech than Gab but less than tizing content creators. This new approach on platforms that were 4chan. Lastly, we find that while some BitChute content producers once more lax in content moderation has led to the proliferation have been banned from other platforms, many maintain profiles on of many alternative social platforms, which harbor banned and mainstream social media platforms, particularly YouTube. This pa- demonetized content creators in the name of free speech. per contributes a first look at the content and discourse on BitChute While moving extremists off of large mainstream platforms and provides a building block for future research on low content seems to be a pro-social solution, as it potentially limits exposure moderation platforms. to anti-social content, the online cultures created and propagated by fringe platforms can have real-world impacts. For example, in CCS CONCEPTS October 2018, a Gab user carried out a mass shooting at a Pitts- • Social and professional topics ! Cultural characteristics; • burgh synagogue after previously announcing the shooting on Gab, Information systems ! Social networks. where he also participated in anti-Semitic discourse [16]. Similarly, in August 2019, a mass shooting occurred in El Paso, Texas, where KEYWORDS police believe the gunman had previously posted a white national- social media, social networks, hate speech, online communities ist themed manifesto on 8chan [1]. Unfortunately, these examples only cover a small fraction of recent events in which online hate ACM Reference Format: speech has motivated, incited, or has been connected to offline Milo Trujillo, Maurício Gruppi, Cody Buntain, and Benjamin D. Horne. violence [11]. While it is unclear how causal the role of fringe 2020. What is BitChute? Characterizing the “Free Speech” Alternative to YouTube. In HT ’20: 31st ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, platforms are in these events, clear connections exist between the July 13–15, 2020, Orlando, FL. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11 pages. https: online discourse and the stated motivations of these events. //doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn These violent events and questions of broader online radical- arXiv:2004.01984v3 [cs.CY] 29 May 2020 ization have shifted the focus of researchers and media towards This paper is supplemental to a short version of the paper published these alternative platforms. A selection of this research shows high in ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media levels of hate speech and broader impact on the online ecosystem. Specifically, research on Gab has shown that the platform has high ∗Both authors contributed equally to this research. levels of hate speech and evidence of alt-right recruiting efforts [29], communities within 4chan, Reddit, and Gab have been shown to Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed spread hateful and racist memes across the web [30], and research for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on 4chan’s “Politically Incorrect” board /pol/ has shown evidence on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM of impact on mainstream platforms, including “raids” of YouTube must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a comment sections [8, 14]. fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. Despite this growing attention, one alternative platform, HT ’20, July 13–15, 2020, Orlando, FL BitChute, has, for the most part, operated under-the-radar, receiv- © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-XXXX-X/18/06...$15.00 ing little attention from media or researchers. BitChute is a re- https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn cently launched video-hosting platform that seeks to provide a HT ’20, July 13–15, 2020, Orlando, FL Milo Trujillo, Maurício Gruppi, Cody Buntain, and Benjamin D. Horne “censorship-free” alternative to YouTube. BitChute’s 2017 launch R3. Both the videos and comments on BitChute contain high comes in a wave of other alternative social platform launches: amounts of hate speech, mostly anti-Semitic. Evidence shows BitChute is an alternative to YouTube, as Gab is an alternative the rate of hate speech on BitChute is higher than on Gab, to Twitter, and Voat is an alternative to Reddit. Just as other fringe but less than 4chan’s “politically incorrect” board /pol/. platforms, BitChute has been said to provide sanctuary for conspir- R4. While some BitChute content producers have been banned acy theorists, disinformation producers, and hate speech. Specifi- from other platforms, many maintain profiles on mainstream cally, the Southern Poverty Law Center has described BitChute as a social media, particularly YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. “low-rent YouTube clone that carries an array of hate-fueled mate- rial” [7]. While BitChute is currently smaller than communities like 4chan and Gab, recent analysis of Google Trends data suggests the 2 RELATED WORK platform is growing in popularity and doing so faster than other A large body of work exists on alternative or fringe online social alternative platforms (see Figure 2). Furthermore, the immense pop- platforms and communities. The earliest and largest set of work ularity of social video content points to the impending success of has focused on the 4chan platform, launched in late 2003. 4chan BitChute. According to a 2019 survey, YouTube was used by 73% of is an anonymous, ephemeral imageboard platform, known for its U.S. adults, making it the most widely used social media platform “politically incorrect” board /pol/ and the various internet memes in the United States. In comparison, only 22% of U.S. adults said created on the platform. Work on 4chan has primarily focused on they used Twitter, and 11% of U.S. adults said they used Reddit [19]. the behavior of /pol/, including studies of hate speech [8], specific This contrast demonstrates the pervasive popularity of social video racist discourse [17], and measurements of its impact outside of content, a role which BitChute seeks to fill. As the alternative news 4chan [8, 30, 31]. Similarly, researchers have studied fringe Red- ecosystem continues to diverge from mainstream sources [26] and dit communities, particularly their connections to 4chan. These YouTube commits more to moderation efforts27 [ , 28], an alterna- studies include exploring news shared across Reddit, 4chan, and tive space to YouTube will likely be a key platform in this space. Twitter [31], discourse on Reddit and 4chan during the Boston If we want to address this increasing polarization in the media Marathon Bombings [20], and detecting potential ideological radi- environment, an understanding of BitChute’s discourse, types of calization on the Alt-right Reddit community [5]. content, and connections with the larger ecosystem are critical to More recent work has focused on characterizing the Gab plat- developing such interventions. form, a low-moderation alternative to Twitter. In 2018, two papers To address this knowledge gap and better understand the po- characterizing the platform were published [12, 29]. They both tential dangers of BitChute, we perform an exploratory, mixed- found similar conclusions. Namely, Gab is predominately used for methods analysis of the video-hosting platform. Our goal with this political discourse and the users of Gab are strongly conservative work is to provide a broad characterization of the platform for leaning. It was also shown that the rate of hate speech on Gab is future research to build from. To the best of our knowledge, this more than Twitter, but less than 4chan. work is the first characterization of BitChute and its place in the Also related is work on YouTube and its potential radicalization alternative social media ecosystem. Specifically, we address four pathways. Specifically, Ribeiro et al. provide the first quantitative primary questions: analysis of user radicalization on YouTube [21]. Using a dataset that is focused on the Alt-right radicalization pathway, the authors show Q1. How active are users on the platform and is interest in the that users consistently move from milder to more extreme content.
Recommended publications
  • The Changing Face of American White Supremacy Our Mission: to Stop the Defamation of the Jewish People and to Secure Justice and Fair Treatment for All
    A report from the Center on Extremism 09 18 New Hate and Old: The Changing Face of American White Supremacy Our Mission: To stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. ABOUT T H E CENTER ON EXTREMISM The ADL Center on Extremism (COE) is one of the world’s foremost authorities ADL (Anti-Defamation on extremism, terrorism, anti-Semitism and all forms of hate. For decades, League) fights anti-Semitism COE’s staff of seasoned investigators, analysts and researchers have tracked and promotes justice for all. extremist activity and hate in the U.S. and abroad – online and on the ground. The staff, which represent a combined total of substantially more than 100 Join ADL to give a voice to years of experience in this arena, routinely assist law enforcement with those without one and to extremist-related investigations, provide tech companies with critical data protect our civil rights. and expertise, and respond to wide-ranging media requests. Learn more: adl.org As ADL’s research and investigative arm, COE is a clearinghouse of real-time information about extremism and hate of all types. COE staff regularly serve as expert witnesses, provide congressional testimony and speak to national and international conference audiences about the threats posed by extremism and anti-Semitism. You can find the full complement of COE’s research and publications at ADL.org. Cover: White supremacists exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Emancipation Park during the ‘Unite the Right’ rally August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
    [Show full text]
  • Free, Hateful, and Posted: Rethinking First Amendment Protection of Hate Speech in a Social Media World
    Boston College Law Review Volume 60 Issue 7 Article 6 10-30-2019 Free, Hateful, and Posted: Rethinking First Amendment Protection of Hate Speech in a Social Media World Lauren E. Beausoleil Boston College Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr Part of the First Amendment Commons, and the Internet Law Commons Recommended Citation Lauren E. Beausoleil, Free, Hateful, and Posted: Rethinking First Amendment Protection of Hate Speech in a Social Media World, 60 B.C.L. Rev. 2100 (2019), https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol60/iss7/6 This Notes is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FREE, HATEFUL, AND POSTED: RETHINKING FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTION OF HATE SPEECH IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD Abstract: Speech is meant to be heard, and social media allows for exaggeration of that fact by providing a powerful means of dissemination of speech while also dis- torting one’s perception of the reach and acceptance of that speech. Engagement in online “hate speech” can interact with the unique characteristics of the Internet to influence users’ psychological processing in ways that promote violence and rein- force hateful sentiments. Because hate speech does not squarely fall within any of the categories excluded from First Amendment protection, the United States’ stance on hate speech is unique in that it protects it.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Truth Protest: How 4Chan Cooked Up...Zagate Bullshit | Tuters
    5/5/2019 Post-Truth Protest: How 4chan Cooked Up the Pizzagate Bullshit | Tuters | M/C Journal M/C JOURNAL Home > Vol 21, No 3 (2018) > Tuters ARTICLE TOOLS HOME Post-Truth Protest: How 4chan Cooked Up the Pizzagate Bullshit PRINT THIS ARTICLE Marc Tuters, Emilija Jokubauskaitė, Daniel Bach CURRENT ISSUE INDEXING METADATA HOW TO CITE ITEM UPCOMING ISSUES Introduction FINDING REFERENCES ARCHIVES On 4 December 2016, a man entered a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor armed with an AR­15 assault rifle in an attempt to save the victims of an alleged satanic pedophilia ring run by EMAIL THIS ARTICLE CONTRIBUTORS prominent members of the Democratic Party. While the story had already been discredited (LOGIN REQUIRED) (LaCapria), at the time of the incident, nearly half of Trump voters were found to give a ABOUT M/C JOURNAL measure of credence to the same rumors that had apparently inspired the gunman (Frankovic). EMAIL THE AUTHOR Was we will discuss here, the bizarre conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate" had in fact (LOGIN REQUIRED) USER HOME originated a month earlier on 4chan/pol/, a message forum whose very raison d’être is to protest against “political correctness” of the liberal establishment, and which had recently ABOUT THE AUTHORS JOURNAL CONTENT become a hub for “loose coordination” amongst members the insurgent US ‘alt­right’ movement Marc Tuters SEARCH (Hawley 48). Over a period of 25 hours beginning on 3 November 2016, contributors to the /pol/ forum combed through a cache of private e­mails belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign https://oilab.eu manager John Podesta, obtained by Russian hackers (Franceschi­Bicchierai) and leaked by University of Amsterdam SEARCH SCOPE Julian Assange (Wikileaks).
    [Show full text]
  • Video Streaming Best Practices for Pr
    VIDEO STREAMING BEST PRACTICES FOR PR Meerkat and Periscope Meerkat and Periscope are experiencing exponential growth. Since their launch in March, the two apps have seen more than 1.5 million live streams. In addition, video consumption is generally on the rise. Cisco predicts that video will account for 80 per cent of all Internet traffic in 2019, up from 64 per cent in 2014. People want to share their worlds. More importantly, they want to be invited into yours. General Electric (GE), pictured below, is taking its audience on an entirely new, experiential journey with Periscope. Meerkat and Periscope have put the spotlight on streaming video and video podcasts. Are they the latest shiny tools of the Internet or something more? We say more. With live streaming, you can engage your audience directly, in real time; boost existing PR content initiatives; and grow awareness and audience engagement. All types of brands are taking advantage of the medium, from musicians to chefs and from real estate professionals to business consultants. The only question left is how to get started with the new tools. Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. The world is your oyster. Live streaming allows for PR aims like growing awareness and engagement as well as thought leadership. In the campaign pictured to the right, Nestle worked with influencers to “drum” up interest in its ice cream. The results speak for themselves. Nestle’s Drumstick Periscope Channel generated more than 5,000 views and more than 50,000 hearts in roughly 12 hours. Influencers (Nestle worked with four.) generated 1,500 views and more than 64,000 hearts.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2001.07600V5 [Cs.CY] 8 Apr 2021 Leged Crisis (Lilly 2016)
    The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web* Manoel Horta Ribeiro,♠;∗ Jeremy Blackburn,4 Barry Bradlyn,} Emiliano De Cristofaro,r Gianluca Stringhini,| Summer Long,} Stephanie Greenberg,} Savvas Zannettou~;∗ EPFL, Binghamton University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University♠ College4 London, Boston} University, Max Planck Institute for Informatics r Corresponding authors: manoel.hortaribeiro@epfl.ch,| ~ [email protected] ∗ Abstract However, Manosphere communities are scattered through the Web in a loosely connected network of subreddits, blogs, We present a large-scale characterization of the Manosphere, YouTube channels, and forums (Lewis 2019). Consequently, a conglomerate of Web-based misogynist movements focused we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the underly- on “men’s issues,” which has prospered online. Analyzing 28.8M posts from 6 forums and 51 subreddits, we paint a ing digital ecosystem, of the evolution of the different com- comprehensive picture of its evolution across the Web, show- munities, and of the interactions among them. ing the links between its different communities over the years. Present Work. In this paper, we present a multi-platform We find that milder and older communities, such as Pick longitudinal study of the Manosphere on the Web, aiming to Up Artists and Men’s Rights Activists, are giving way to address three main research questions: more extreme ones like Incels and Men Going Their Own Way, with a substantial migration of active users. Moreover, RQ1: How has the popularity/levels of activity of the dif- our analysis suggests that these newer communities are more ferent Manosphere communities evolved over time? toxic and misogynistic than the older ones.
    [Show full text]
  • Real Talk About Fake News
    Real Talk About Fake News WLA Conference 2018 Real Talk About Fake News Website: http://bit.ly/2qgeaQZ Slide Deck: http://bit.ly/2SihcE9 About Us Shana Ferguson, Teacher Librarian & National Board Certified Teacher, Columbia River HS, Vancouver Public Schools, Vancouver, WA @medialitnerd www.medialitnerd.com Katie Nedved, Teacher Librarian & National Board Certified Teacher, Henrietta Lacks Health & Bioscience High School, Evergreen Public Schools, Vancouver, WA @katienedved www.helacell.org/library Di Zhang, Adult Services Librarian, The Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA [email protected] Session Overview Public Libraries & Community Engagement School Libraries & Teacher Librarians Sample lessons & topics Evaluation Overview Biggest Topics/Pro Tips Pulse of the Room Which level of library do you serve? Have you taught misinformation (“fake news”) lessons? Where do your patrons get their news? Public Library- Why We Started Talking About Fake News -Community members asked us (confusion over fraudulent news stories and misinformation during 2016 elections) -Fake news is here to stay and ramping up -Digital information literacy is a necessary skill in 21st Century -Librarians, educators and journalists all have roles to play in combating fake news Photo credit: University Sunrise Rotary Club Seattle Public Library’s Approach- Research & Collaboration - Read wide and deep into issue (with help from other libraries, news orgs). - Create curriculum for 2 hour class. - Promote widely, especially with existing media connections. - Encourage and support staff to teach and assist in classes, adapt curriculum to needs of audience. Seattle Public Library’s Approach- Partner with Local Orgs MOHAI Community Conversation on Fake News 9-27-18 Partnerships with: - MOHAI - King County TV Outcomes: - Follow up program w/ MOHAI - Panelists & attendees are future potential partners Seattle Public Library’s Approach- Roadshow - There is an audience- find them.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Proceedings of the Fifteenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2021) A Large Open Dataset from the Parler Social Network Max Aliapoulios1, Emmi Bevensee2, Jeremy Blackburn3, Barry Bradlyn4, Emiliano De Cristofaro5, Gianluca Stringhini6, Savvas Zannettou7 1New York University, 2SMAT, 3Binghamton University, 4University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 5University College London, 6Boston University, 7Max Planck Institute for Informatics [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract feasible in technical terms to create a new social media plat- Parler is as an “alternative” social network promoting itself form, but marketing the platform towards specific polarized as a service that allows to “speak freely and express yourself communities is an extremely successful strategy to bootstrap openly, without fear of being deplatformed for your views.” a user base. In other words, there is a subset of users on Twit- Because of this promise, the platform become popular among ter, Facebook, Reddit, etc., that will happily migrate to a new users who were suspended on mainstream social networks platform, especially if it advertises moderation policies that for violating their terms of service, as well as those fearing do not restrict the growth and spread of political polariza- censorship. In particular, the service was endorsed by several tion, conspiracy theories, extremist ideology, hateful and vi- conservative public figures, encouraging people to migrate olent speech, and mis- and dis-information. from traditional social networks. After the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Parler has been progressively de- Parler.
    [Show full text]
  • Tiktok Y La Creación De Marca Personal
    Tiktok y la creación de marca personal Tiktok y la creación de marca personal 1. ÍNDICE - ¿Qué es TikTok? - Historia de TikTok - Evolución de TikTok y expansión imparable (boom durante la pandemia) - Target principal de TikTok (más que la Generación Z) - Las claves del éxito de TikTok - Cómo publicar en TikTok - Consejos para publicar en TikTok - TikTok y su gran engagement - Inversión publicitaria y formatos de anuncios de TikTok - Pasos para hacer una campaña de publicidad serfserve en TikTok - La alianza de TikTok con Shopify: e-commerce - ¿Qué son y para qué sirven el Video Template, Automated Creative Optimisation y Smart Video Soundtrack? - Ventajas de activar una cuenta PRO en TikTok - Otras opciones de privacidad y seguridad en TikTok - Desintoxicación digital: ‘Gestión de Tiempo en Pantalla’, ‘Sincronización familiar’, ‘Modo Restringido’ - Estrategia de influencers, fondo de creadores y compra de monedas virtuales (programa Diamante) - Influencers que más ganan en TikTok - Verificación de cuentas en TikTok - Rumores de espionaje y censura - Cómo crear tu imagen de marca personal en TikTok - Conclusión 2. ¿QUÉ ES TIKTOK? TikTok es una red social china que nace en 2016 y que se basa en la publicación de vídeos cortos y verticales (de entre 3 y 60 segundos) en los que la música y el baile juegan un papel destacado. En China mantiene el nombre original de DouYin, pero en 2018 se extendió por todo el planeta con el nombre de TikTok tras su fusión con la app Musical.ly. Actualmente, se ha convertido en una de las apps más descargadas del mundo por su afinidad y popularidad entre los jóvenes de la Generación Z (nacidos entre 1994 y 2010) y un público de edad cada vez más amplio a raíz del aumento de su popularidad durante la pandemia del Covid- 19.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Gab? a Bastion of Free Speech Or an Alt-Right Echo Chamber?
    What is Gab? A Bastion of Free Speech or an Alt-Right Echo Chamber? Savvas Zannettou Barry Bradlyn Emiliano De Cristofaro Cyprus University of Technology Princeton Center for Theoretical Science University College London [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Haewoon Kwak Michael Sirivianos Gianluca Stringhini Qatar Computing Research Institute Cyprus University of Technology University College London & Hamad Bin Khalifa University [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Jeremy Blackburn University of Alabama at Birmingham [email protected] ABSTRACT ACM Reference Format: Over the past few years, a number of new “fringe” communities, Savvas Zannettou, Barry Bradlyn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Haewoon Kwak, like 4chan or certain subreddits, have gained traction on the Web Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, and Jeremy Blackburn. 2018. What is Gab? A Bastion of Free Speech or an Alt-Right Echo Chamber?. In WWW at a rapid pace. However, more often than not, little is known about ’18 Companion: The 2018 Web Conference Companion, April 23–27, 2018, Lyon, how they evolve or what kind of activities they attract, despite France. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3184558. recent research has shown that they influence how false informa- 3191531 tion reaches mainstream communities. This motivates the need to monitor these communities and analyze their impact on the Web’s information ecosystem. 1 INTRODUCTION In August 2016, a new social network called Gab was created The Web’s information ecosystem is composed of multiple com- as an alternative to Twitter.
    [Show full text]
  • Building Resilience & Confronting Risk In
    BUILDING RESILIENCE & CONFRONTING RISK IN THE COVID-19 ERA A PARENTS & CAREGIVERS GUIDE TO ONLINE RADICALIZATION POLARIZATION AND EXTREMISM RESEARCH AND INNOVATION LAB (PERIL) PERIL brings the resources and expertise of the university sector to bear CONTENTS on the problem of growing youth polarization and extremist radicalization, through scalable research, intervention, and public education ideas to PARENT & CAREGIVER GUIDE 3 reduce rising polarization and hate. WHAT IS ONLINE RADICALIZATION? WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? 4 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER NEW RISKS IN THE COVID-19 ERA 5 The SPLC seeks to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and RECOGNIZING WARNING SIGNS 6 beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS 7 supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the ENGAGE AND EMPOWER 9 human rights of all people. RESPONDING TO HATE 11 HOW TO GET HELP 12 APPENDIX: STAYING ALERT TO SITES, PLATFORMS AND APPS FREQUENTLY EXPLOITED BY EXTREMISTS 17 ENDNOTES 19 CREDITS 20 ILLUSTRATIONS BY CLAUDIA WHITAKER PARENT & CAREGIVER GUIDE Who is this guide for? We wrote this guide with a wide Whether you live with a young person, or work virtually range of caregivers in mind. with youth, radicalization to extremism is something we all should be concerned about. Extremists looking Caregivers living with children and young adults. This to recruit and convert children are predatory. Like all includes parents, grandparents, foster parents, extended forms of child exploitation, extremist recruitment drives families, and residential counselors who are the a wedge between young people and the adults they would guardians and caregivers of children and youth living typically trust.
    [Show full text]
  • JMP Securities Elite 80 Report (Formerly Super 70)
    Cybersecurity, Data Management & ,7 Infrastructure FEBRUARY 201 ELITE 80 THE HOTTEST PRIVATELY HELD &<%(5SECURITY, '$7$0$1$*(0(17 AND ,7,1)5$6758&785( COMPANIES &RS\ULJKWWLWLSRQJSZO6KXWWHUVWRFNFRP Erik Suppiger Patrick Walravens Michael Berg [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (415) 835-3918 (415) 835-8943 (415)-835-3914 FOR DISCLOSURE AND FOOTNOTE INFORMATION, REFER TO JMP FACTS AND DISCLOSURES SECTION. Cybersecurity, Data Management & IT Infrastructure TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 4 Top Trends and Technological Changes ............................................................................................ 5 Funding Trends ................................................................................................................................ 11 Index by Venture Capital Firm .......................................................................................................... 17 Actifio ................................................................................................................................................ 22 Alert Logic ......................................................................................................................................... 23 AlgoSec ............................................................................................................................................ 24 AnchorFree ......................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Gamers Who Hate: an Introduction to ISD's Gaming and Extremism Series
    Gaming and Extremism Gamers Who Hate: An Introduction to ISD’s Gaming and Extremism Series Jacob Davey About the series This briefing is the first in ISD’s Gaming and Extremism Series exploring the role online gaming plays in the strategy of far-right extremists in the UK and globally. This is part of a broader programme on the ‘Future of Extremism’ being delivered by ISD in the second half of 2021, charting the transformational shifts in the extremist threat landscape two decades on from 9/11, and the policy strategies required to counter the next generation of extremist threats. This briefing provides an introduction to the series and presents the key findings that ISD analysts found in an exploratory study into extremist activity on four gaming-related platforms, Steam, Discord, DLive and Twitch. Gaming and Extremism Contents 3 Contents Introduction 4 Key Findings 6 Methodology 10 Endnotes 11 Gaming and Extremism Gamers Who Hate 4 Introduction Globally, gaming is now the most profitable To help fill this crucial evidence gap ISD engaged in a entertainment industry, far surpassing both music scoping project exploring the use of the gaming-related and film.1 According to the gaming market data platforms Steam, Discord, Twitch and DLive by the company Newzoo, there are 2.81 billion gamers extreme right, concentrating specifically on the UK. worldwide2 and in the United Kingdom 39% of the This work is presented in our Gaming and Extremism population play video games, a figure that rises series, providing a series of snapshot analyses designed to 73% within the 16 – 24 year old age range.3 to identify key trends and patterns which can provide The industry is expansive and allows huge the groundwork for future analysis.
    [Show full text]