The Digital Transformation of Online Extremism | ONLINE

Abstract

Online extremism is an emerging societal problem as tragically evidenced by the recent Christchurch Mosque Shooting or the attack on the US Capitol. Governments and tech companies are struggling to develop effective countermeasures and policies. Scholars recognize that online technologies are currently only understood as another context for extremism to occur in. Consequently, (counter) extremism approaches fail to address the implications and opportunities of digital technologies, for example, the impact that digital technologies have on group polarization as a main driver of extremism.

Instead, Dr Marten Risius proposes that online extremism constitutes a digital transformation of traditional extremism with particular organizational and societal implications. To comprehensively address online extremism, he suggests we need to consider the interaction between societal and technological components. In this talk, Marten will introduce a sociotechnical perspective on online extremism that conceptualizes the social (i.e., individual users, organizational structure) and technical components (i.e., physical system, task) to understand and address online extremism.

Speaker

Dr Marten Risius is Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems at the University of Queensland. His research interests are in the areas of social media and blockchain technologies. He applies business analytics to solve managerial and societal issues (e.g., centralization, echo-chambers, fake news). His articles have been published in several journals (e.g., SMJ, JSIS, JIT, I&M, MISQE, BISE, CAIS) and peer-reviewed conference proceedings (ICIS, ECIS, AMCIS, PACIS). He serves as Associate Editor at ICIS, ECIS and WI, as Session Chair at PACIS, and as reviewer for various international journals. His dissertation thesis was recognized as the best publication in the entire field of Business Administration from a young researcher in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the VHB (German Academic Association for Business Research), received the TARGION award for the best practice-oriented research on strategic information management, was honored as the best dissertation from the Frankfurt Chamber of Commcerce, and was a finalist for the Schmalenbach-Award. In his free time he serves as member of the young jury for the DVP.