RAN small-scale expert meeting - New technologies and P/CVE: threats and opportunities for practitioners, 26 March 2024

RAN Practitioners Working Groups and several expert papers have covered various aspects of new technologies in meetings over the years, with specific meetings exploring the possibilities for practitioners to develop social media campaigns, one-on-one interventions and community building, and for engaging with moderation (by platforms) and regulation (by EU or national laws). 

Meetings have also focused on violent extremist exploitation of technological developments, including video games, deepfakes and artificial intelligence (AI). This small-scale expert meeting looked at emerging technological trends to review the challenges and opportunities they pose for practitioners working in the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). 

Several experts gathered to discuss four main types of new and emerging technologies: decentralised technologies and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs); augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and gaming (as well as gaming-adjacent platforms); generative AI; and synthetic content on social media. 

The remainder of this paper covers the different panel presentations that were given during this small-scale meeting, followed by an overview of the threats different types of new and emerging technologies might pose, as well as recommendations and opportunities to use new and emerging technologies in P/CVE efforts.