Call for participants: RAN Cross-Cutting Event on Online monitoring of radicalisation and (violent) extremism: mapping legal and policy challenges for online P/CVE work

Key facts about the meeting

Europol's recent Terrorist Situation and Trend Report 2023 (TE-SAT 2023) highlights the ongoing concern of online propaganda driving radicalisation, exploiting vulnerabilities such as social isolation and inadequate support systems to disseminate messages and recruit followers. This concern is exacerbated by the exposure of numerous young individuals, including minors, to such terrorist content. In addition to conventional social media, openly accessible messaging applications, virtual forums, and gaming platforms, decentralised platforms are now favoured among terrorist groups, significantly hindering law enforcement monitoring and investigation. Furthermore, emerging trends like anti-institutional extremism exploit digital platforms to spread misinformation and conspiracy narratives, eroding trust in democracy.

This shift to online dissemination, recruitment, and incitement presents new challenges for policymakers and practitioners, necessitating a keen understanding of the threat, namely the exploitation of online spaces by extremist actors for the dissemination of extremist propaganda, radicalisation, and recruitment efforts. Effectively addressing these challenges requires two key considerations: remaining informed of the threat landscape, for instance through online monitoring practices or through comprehensive research efforts, within suitable legal and policy frameworks, and identifying practical strategies for preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) in the online sphere.

To tackle these issues, the RAN will organise a Cross-Cutting Event in Brussels on 18 October 2023 (09:00-15:30 CEST) gathering insights from law enforcement, social work, and youth work practitioners, as well as policymakers working in relevant fields, to address the unique challenges of online P/CVE efforts. The event will provide the opportunity for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to exchange views and share insights.

A networking dinner will also take place on 17 October (19:00 CEST). Participants are highly encouraged to attend the dinner to connect with their counterparts in other Member States and to foster cross-cutting exchanges of experiences and information.

Overall, the objective of this meeting is to identify ways forward for policymakers and practitioners on how to deal with online radicalisation. This key objective can be broken down into five sub-objectives:

• Mapping the current European and national legal and policy frameworks applicable to online monitoring, P/CVE interventions, and information-sharing practices.
• Identifying practical challenges related to online P/CVE efforts.
• Identifying good practices of online P/CVE efforts.
• Identifying gaps in policies and legal mandates, and assessing pros and cons of various policy options.
• Providing the opportunity for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to connect with one another and share experiences and information on policies and best practices related to online P/CVE work.

Participants and registration

Attendance to the meeting is limited to 100 participants. The call is aimed at practitioners, policymakers and researchers active in the law enforcement and education fields, as well as those involved in social work and youth work.

Deadline: if you are interested in attending the event, please fill in this form no later than Friday 15th of September. We will invite participants based on their answers and the order of registration.

As we will only be able to cover the travel and accommodation costs for a limited number of participants attending in person, please register in a timely manner.

If you have further questions about the event, please contact RAN Practitioners Staff via: R [dot] Scheeleradaradvies [dot] nl (R[dot]Scheele[at]radaradvies[dot]nl) or the RAN Policy Support Team contractor at: RAN [dot] policy [dot] supporticf [dot] com (RAN[dot]policy[dot]support[at]icf[dot]com)