News and Media

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) maintains resources documenting white supremacist groups—their history and known activities—currently operating in the United States. These groups continue to propogate hatred, bigotry, and violence against racial and ethnic minorities and spread anti-government propaganda in an effort to advance their radical agendas.

Last week, Facebook announced the formation of a 20-member independent oversight body tasked with making decisions on contentious content issues, such as online extremism, hate speech, harassment, and user privacy and security. Facebook’s Oversight Board comes nearly two years after a damaging New York Times exposé detailed how Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and other top company executives worked to “ delay, deny and deflect ” bad news following public relations crises. The process that led to Oversight Board’s creation and subsequent media announcements raise concerns that this is yet another public relations-driven measure in lieu of substantive change.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence. Last week, the white supremacist street fighting gang, Rise Above Movement (RAM), launched a Telegram channel featuring their extreme right wing, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic content. The Maldivian pro-ISIS Haqqu Media Center released a new video praising a Maldivian ISIS fighter killed in Syria, while ISIS released an Amaq News propaganda video showing an alleged attack on a Nigerien military facility. Also, CEP researchers located two pro-ISIS propaganda websites that use Cloudflare as their name server.

Last week, seven members of the U.S. Congress wrote to the Jordanian ambassador to the United States, Dina Kawar, asking the Hashemite Kingdom to extradite wanted Hamas terrorist Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi to the United States. Tamimi is wanted by the FBI for coordinating and aiding the August 2001 Hamas suicide bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that wounded 130 people and killed 15, including two Americans. Tamimi has lived freely in Jordan since 2011 while fighting against the U.S. extradition request.

On Sunday, the New York Times highlighted increased efforts by white supremacist extremist groups to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic as a means to advance their radical agendas and attract new members. Far-right extremist groups are increasingly mobilizing their appeals to potential supporters online that include racist sentiments, anti-Semitic tropes, and misinformation with claims that COVID-19 is a Jewish-run conspiracy and, alternatively, as being spread by nonwhite immigrants.

Cryptocurrencies as a decentralized value transfer and storage mechanism are one of the most important current innovations in the financial industry. Their technical structure allows individuals and entities to quickly, efficiently, and globally transfer values without the use of the global financial system. In this regard, this technology could be seen as a breakthrough in tackling the challenge of financial inclusion. CEP and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in New York cordially invite you to a webinar launching this latest report.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence. This week, a pro-ISIS RocketChat chatroom celebrated the recent vehicular attack in France that left three French police officers injured and encouraged supporters to conduct more attacks during the holy month of Ramadan and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, ISIS released a new video titled “To Be Absolved Before Your Lord” which disparaged al-Qaeda and included several interviews with fighters from their self-proclaimed province in Yemen.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) published a new report today that analyzes the profiles of individuals that joined the conflict in the Ukraine from abroad. The study, Career Break or New Career? Extremist Foreign Fighters in Ukraine , focuses on the motivations of western foreign fighters from the extreme right-wing milieu. The study aims to explain who these fighters are, where they come from, and what they are likely to do next, as well as assess to what extent these individuals pose a security threat.

Today, Germany designated Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization, banning all of its activities in the country. The announcement by the Federal Ministry of the Interior came hours after German authorities raided properties in Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Berlin, detaining several suspects accused of providing financial and propaganda support to the terrorist group. Germany had previously designated only Hezbollah’s so-called military wing as a terrorist group, allowing Hezbollah’s political supporters to freely operate in the country. Germany joins the Netherlands as the only EU member states to recognize the Iran-backed group as a single entity. The UK also designated Hezbollah in March 2019.

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) invites you to join us in a May 6 webinar discussion about European regulation of extremist and terrorist content online.