24–26 November 2025 · Deakin Downtown Campus, Melbourne, Australia
AVERT International Research Symposium 2025
Signal or Noise? Navigating the Changing Nature of Violent Extremism Online
The pace and scale of technological development is expanding the ways propaganda is disseminated and the types of people and groups who are vulnerable to violent extremism. At the same time, emergent online violent extremist subcultures and movements are becoming ever more cross-platform, transnational, and normalised. These shifting dynamics make it harder to distinguish meaningful threats (‘signal’) from background activity (‘noise’) online, necessitating better methods for threat assessment, prevention, and effective interventions.
This year’s symposium was delivered in collaboration with the Vox-Pol Network of Excellence and the Terrorism and Social Media (TASM) Conference.
Keynote Speaker
Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss
American University, Washington DC
Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Education at the American University in Washington, DC, and founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL).
Session Recordings
Day 1 Plenary & Keynote
D1 Session A: Gaming, The Manosphere, Misogyny, and Technology in Digital Ecosystems
D1 Session B: Listening Posts Identifying and Responding to Online Extremist Signalling
D2 Session B: Outsmarted? Artificial Intelligence for and Against Violent Extremism
D1 Session A: Dark Mode How Extremism, Nihilism and Gore Intersect Online
D1 Roundtable A: Building Digital Community Resilience: Youth Led Solutions for Online Communities
D2 Plenary Session
D2 Session A: The Youthiverse: Digital Dynamics for Young People Radicalising to Extremist Violence
D2 Session B: VOX-Pol Workshop: Opportunities to Enhance Strategies for Disrupting Online Networks
D2 Session A: New Directions: Doctoral Research on Violent Extremism Online
D2 Roundtable A: Before ‘Youth Culture:’ Online Childhoods, Child Vulnerabilities and More
D2 Session B: Policing The Boundaries: New Threats and Challenges for Policy and Practice Responses
D3 Roundtable A: From Signals to Solutions: Scaling Effective Online PCVE Programs
D3 Session A: Thresholds And Triggers for Measuring Online Hate to Anticipate Real World Harm
D3 Session B: Movement at the Station: Online Conspiracy Discourse and Mobilisation to Violence