The University of Oxford conducted a study to understand the proneness to extreme violence amongst online users. This Research develops a novel method of assessing the risk that online users will engage in acts of violent extremism based on linguistic markers detectable in terrorist manifestos. It involved comparative NLP analysis across 15 manifestos from violent to moderate political stances.

The work confirmed the identification of linguistic markers for groups prone to acts of violent extremism. The assessment framework may prove useful to police and security professionals in helping assess the risk that online users will engage in offline violence.

Click here to read more about the award and the team’s work.