News and Media

Press Releases

7
May
Press Release

Extremist Content Online: ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Re-Emerges in a Widely Shared Propaganda Video

CEP's Extremist Content Online this week s potlights ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s re-emergence in a video posted online one week after the horrific Easter Sunday terrorist attacks targeting churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. The video was found on more than 30 different websites. This week’s edition also documents white supremacists celebrating the recent Poway Synagogue shooting online and encouraging similar future attacks.
6
May
Press Release

ISIS Leader and Former Muslim Brotherhood Member Appears for the First Time in Five Years

ISIS released its latest propaganda video last week, featuring ISIS leader and former Muslim Brotherhood member Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi . Baghdadi’s jihadist ideology can be traced back to his days in the Muslim Brotherhood while a student in Iraq, which led him down a path of violent jihadism with al-Qaeda and then ISIS. In its report, The Muslim Brotherhood’s Ties to ISIS and al-Qaeda , the Counter Extremism Project ( CEP ) details the core beliefs, the shared goals and the frequent examples of cooperation among the three groups.
1
May
Press Release

CEP’s Dr. Hany Farid: “There is Real, Measurable Harm Happening From Moving Fast And Breaking Things”

CEP today released the second in a nine-part video series featuring CEP Senior Advisor Dr. Hany Farid, titled "Internet." In the video, Dr. Farid warns of how the tech industry’s and Facebook’s famed “Move Fast and Break Things” mantra is no longer acceptable in today’s highly-developed internet.
1
May
Press Release

White House Considers Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terror Group

CEP today released a new resource detailing the Muslim Brotherhood’s established ties to more than 40 radical extremists, including terrorist groups, foreign fighters and extremism propagandists. The Brotherhood officially maintains a platform of non-violence, but has supported violent terrorism across the Middle East. The Brotherhood’s long-standing aims are to use its ideology to foment violence and terror, and implement sharia within a global caliphate.
30
Apr
Press Release

Extremist Content Online: ISIS Releases Propaganda Online Following Easter Sri Lanka Attacks

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 includes an overview of ISIS’ online activity glorifying the terrorist group’s Easter Sunday massacre at Sri Lankan hotels and churches on Facebook, YouTube and Telegram, among others. In addition, it includes neo-Nazi activity around Hitler’s birthday and neo-Nazi sales of anti-Semitic t-shirts on Teespring .
26
Apr
Press Release

Tech & Terrorism: Facebook & Twitter Revenues Balloon Despite Non-Stop Controversies

This week, Facebook and Twitter reported astronomic increases in revenue. Facebook’s year-over-year first quarter revenue increased more than 25 percent to $15.1 billion and Twitter’s increased nearly 20 percent to $787 million . Contrary to what tech firms may want lawmakers to believe, the cost of the industry’s controversies has been “ very little ” despite increased attention from regulators in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. Both companies have also promised time and time again to do more to eliminate extremist content online, but the continued existence of such material on their platforms makes clear that these promises are not enough.
24
Apr
Press Release

CEP Releases First of Nine-Part Online Extremism Video Series Featuring Dr. Hany Farid

CEP tod ay released the first of a nine-part video series featuring CEP Senior Advisor Dr. Hany Farid , the Albert Bradley 1915 Third Century Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College and incoming School of Information and EECS professor at UC Berkeley. Each video will feature in-depth analysis by Dr. Farid on different aspects of the problem of online extremism and how the tech industry can address it. They will be released on a weekly basis.
24
Apr
Press Release

Smart Regulation and Smart Technology

CEP and the UN Office of Counter Terrorism will have a brown bag lunch and roundtable discussion on April 25 from 1-2:30 hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the UN. The topic of the free event will be the regulatory and technological efforts and challenges of countering the misuse of the internet and social media applications by terrorist organizations.
23
Apr
Press Release

ICYMI: CEP Identifies Multiple Examples of Infamous ISIS Bomb Making Video Online

On April 17, 2019, CEP researchers located the infamous ISIS bomb-making and execution video, “You Must Fight Them O Muwahhid ,” on several video streaming and file download websites. The video shows step-by-step instructions for the construction of a triacetone triperoxide ( TATP ) explosive device, as well as knife tactics on a human target. TATP has been used in numerous terrorist attacks in Europe, including the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, the 2015 Paris attacks and the July 7, 2005 London bombings, often referred to as the 7/7 attacks.
22
Apr
Press Release

Smart Regulation and Smart Technology

CEP and the UN Office of Counter Terrorism will have a brown bag lunch and roundtable discussion on April 25 from 1-2:30 hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the UN. The topic of the free event will be the regulatory and technological efforts and challenges of countering the misuse of the internet and social media applications by terrorist organizations.