CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND WEW BOARD 5 RECOMMENDATIONS linked to far-righ hich The research team Drs Stephane Baele, Lewys themes linked to far-right concerns, which partly Brace, and Travis Coan from th

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND WEW BOARD
5 RECOMMENDATIONS
linked to far-righ hich
The research team Drs Stephane Baele, Lewys themes linked to far-right concerns, which partly
Brace, and Travis Coan from the University of /POL BOARDS ANALYSED stems from their low popularity.
MINING THE CHANS Exeter, scraped the content of six /pol boards
2
over more than six months, using custom Python While 4chan/pol in Tier 1 is far the most popular This may result in less of a group identity than what
role /pol boards play in the far-right coding. board and its content may be distasteful, in a is at play on and 4chan/pol. These boards
online ecosystem and how might security и context of limited resources it is advisable to focus are consequently less of a ‘radicalising force’ despite
practitioners better mitigate the threat they pose? The textual and visual content of the boards was 6chan/pol attention on boards in Tiers 2 and 3. their more extreme content, which is already at the
organised in a database that also included relevant Endchan/pol most extreme end of the ideological spectrum.
metadata (date/time of posts, length of posts, etc). Infinitychan/bestpol* While the boards in Tier 3, such as Infinitychan/
bestpol and Neinchan/pol, contain more extreme
A 4 Neinchan/pol* developed
The analysis relied on a series of computer- content and more developed ideas, 8kun/pol in
assisted content analysis methods such as *accessible only on the dark web Tier 2 should be the focus of granular analysis.
occurrence networks, correspondence analysis, it be that Shutting down the boards can potentially
66 99 or hyperlinks detection. heats counter-productive, but only if part of а rapid,
Concerns have grown that /pol boards function as radicalising sustained and large-scale effort to shut them all
joards, engagement ese boards is minimal
echo-chambers and constitute gateways to more radical content FINDINGS down at the same time, and to close any new ones
and the anecdotal data available from these cases
that may appear.
indicates that the majority of their radicalisation
8chan/pol.
INTRODUCTION аррепес It has been demonstrated at least twice in the last
two to three years that, when faced with being shut
Ath del derived litati The del also deri This working assumption is supported the team’s а ities simply
Over the past two decades, an ever-evolving their attacks, promote their manifestos, and/or гее- was а то mary content analysis. as one progresses nese simply migra oF
series of anonymous image-board forums knowns share the live recordings of their crimes. о у in о from Tier 2 to Tier 3, the boards start to exhibit omen с all imp emen same
as ‘chans’ have proliferated on the internet, with researc team. oar position within the ‘on’ ribu ‘ors to ier oards post proportionally a more heterogeneous assemblage of different structure and are very easy to replicate.
4chan being the most well-known of them all Concerns have grown that /pol boards function is determined simultaneously, the volume of its more links to far-right websites and content than
radicalising echo-chambers posting traffic and the extremity of its content. See those in Tier 2, who themselves post proportionally
Although these online forums contain a wide gateways to more radical content, and thus occupy table below. more than Tier 1 contributors. Additionally, linked
variety of content, including discussions of subjects a particularly problematic position within the far-right websites and content in Tier 3 tend to be Date Suspect Location Announcement method
from cooking to video games, they quickly drew broader far-right online landscape. more extremist (neo-Nazi communities, weapons
the attention of security practitioners due to the instructions than those of Tier 2, with the same 27/10/2018 Robert Bowers Pittsburgh, USA Post to Gab
more extreme and sometimes illegal content In response to this, a research team has analysed being true for Tier 2 compared to Tier 1. Christchurch, New
they host (extremist ideological material, fetishist/ several notorious /pol boards to specify the type 15/03/2019 Brenton Tarrant Zealand Post to 8chan
child pornography, weapons instructions, etc). of extremist interactions hosted these forums; Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
better understand the role they play in the far- 27/04/2019 John Earnest Poway, USA Post to 8chan
Scrutiny from security practitioners further right online ecosystem; and suggest how best to 4chan/pol 8kun/pol All other boards Patrick Crusius EIPaso,USA
03/08/2019 Patrick Crusi Paso, USA Post to
increased following a spree of far-right inspired mitigate the threats posed them. /08/ aso ost to
High levels of posting traffic Much less traffic than 4/chan/ Comparatively very little traffic oF
attacks in 2019, including Brenton Tarrant’s attack 8 Posting yvery 10/08/2019 Philip Manshaus Baerum, Norway Post to Endchan
of the Christchurch mosques, whose perpetrators This guide gives a summary of the team’s analysis, and less-extreme content than pol but significantly more racist but the most extreme content,
used the so-called ‘/pol’ (‘politically incorrect’) findings and policy recommendations. 8kun/pol. content. usually openly neo-Nazi or 09/10/2019 Stephen Balliet Halle, Germany Post to Meguca
board of one of the chans (8chan) to announce fascist.
Table 1: High-profile attacks linked to chan sites during late-2018 to early-2020. Note: Мевиса is also a chan-like image board
The possibility of migration to other platforms,
such as Discord servers, also exists. While one such 66
migration is easy to implement, multiple migrations About the authors
inevitably incur costs and risks to their extremist One such tactic would aim at Baele, of Exeter
users: Internal strife may erupt, user bases may gradually making these boards Given the limitations of traditional tools, more out-
fragment to more than one successor platform, 1 A for thei Brace, University of Exeter
enthusiasm may wane, etc ess interesting for their users. of-the-box tactics should be considered. One such
tactic would aim at gradually making these boards Coan, University of Exeter
Attempts to shut down these platforms come with 99 less interesting for their users. 4
a risk for practitioners. Given the role they play as
gateways to the wider far-right online ecosystem, One way to achieve this would be to regularly
shutting them down diminishes useful intelligence members to mock the DHS and sow an increased post content that looks genuine (using the right
into what other communities and domains exist in distrust in foreign policy. language, imagery, etc.) yet is meaningless this
У]
this area would dilute the message of these boards and
The issue of source credibility is particularly make their threads uninteresting, thereby reducing
This recommendation should be viewed in the problematic when dealing with the chans, for two their attractiveness and sense of community.
reasons:
context of the ‘hydra effect’ nature of these chan
sites and their insertion within a much larger Recent developments in artificial intelligence
landscape of fringe discussion spaces (slug.com, 1. suspicious ofany poster enabling researchers to automatically generate
kiwifarm, etc.) who does not use the very specific language credible extremist sentences make such a tactic
and unwritten interaction codes of the group, cheap and easy to implement.
both with regards to terminology and memes.
In conclusion, shutting down these sites should A a
only be done as part of a sustained and large-scale 1
2. The user base is highly paranoid about Бет 1 vet
effort (such as the one conducted in December hed а я
researched and surveyed. Any substantial
2019 Europol’s IRU on ISIS Telegram channels), у У 1
belief of this occurring, such counter- 1 у“ 1 a
and only after considering the potential migration ‘ect
narratives appearing, would trigger rejection or,
effects and resulting loss of intelligence.
if sustained, platform migration.
that should Lewys Brace
ere are also practical concerns that shoul University of Exeter,
considered before any counter-messaging campaign
is proposed. For example, security practitioners
Providing counter-narratives is unlikely to work for should not underestimate how tech-savvy some of
similar reasons as to why the Department of the users are. 7 Я
Homeland Security’s (DHS) 2013 ‘Think Again, Turn
Baele, Lewys Brace Travis С. Coan ‘tarrant effect’: what impact did
Away’ campaign failed: source credibility. If the office address is not masked, the user base READ attacks have on the 8chan forum?, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, DOI:
has shown themselves capable of determining that MORE 10.1080/19434472.2020.1862274
While this counter-narrative programme did they are under surveillance or targeted counter- (4
recognise the key role that social media was narrative measures due to how a particular 7
i i ici i COPYRIGHT 7
playing in ISIS’ online recruitment, it did little more address is only posting suspicious messages during This guide is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. For more information on how you can use CREST
than provide a platform for ISIS sympathisers and office hours. products see www.crestresearch.ac.uk/copyright
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