As the digital landscape evolves, so too must responses to terrorist and violent extremist use of the Internet.
UNICRI has launched Thinking in Alternatives – A Community Note for Southeast Asia: Strengthening Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Use of the Internet, a new report exploring alternative approaches to detecting, monitoring and responding to terrorist and violent extremist activity across increasingly complex online ecosystems.
The report focuses on Southeast Asia, examining the evolving threat landscape in the region, and how terrorist and violent extremist actors exploit digital technologies to advance their objectives. It also considers how approaches and solutions developed to address these threats can be adapted to specific linguistic, cultural and technological contexts.
An increasingly complex online environment
The use of the Internet and online ecosystems by terrorist and violent extremist actors has become increasingly complex, intersecting with a broad range of harmful narratives, violent content and online subcultures.
These risks are compounded by limited content moderation capacities, gaps in awareness of what constitutes harmful and unlawful content, linguistic and cultural challenges, and weaker partnerships between governments, civil society and information and communication technology companies. The global rollback of content moderation policies in recent years, together with capacity and enforcement issues faced by some major social media platforms, has further reduced safeguards against harmful content and created a more permissive environment for terrorist and violent extremist narratives.
In this complex and evolving digital landscape, existing approaches and solutions, despite their strengths, can be limited in their effectiveness and adaptability. Alternative ways of thinking and a more holistic approach are needed to encourage cross-learning among information and communication technology companies, law enforcement and civil society.
Exploring alternative approaches
The report examines two areas that offer particular promise: the use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods to detect and monitor emerging threats more effectively, and community-driven approaches to counter terrorist and violent extremist content online, drawing on local knowledge, expertise and collaboration.
On detection and monitoring, Thinking in Alternatives examines how OSINT can be used to identify and track terrorist and violent extremist activity, while considering its limitations, challenges and areas for improvement. On the response side, the report explores content moderation approaches, with particular attention to community-based mechanisms such as user reporting, community notes, middleware, open-source tools and moderation on the fediverse.
The report also highlights the importance of effective content moderation rooted in a deep understanding of linguistic and cultural norms, while upholding human rights. In this context, empowering civil society organizations and technology hubs to co-create community-driven solutions can help improve content moderation at the local, national and regional levels.
A focus on Southeast Asia
Although online threats, methods and approaches are global in nature, Thinking in Alternatives focuses on Southeast Asia to explore how approaches and solutions can be adapted to specific contexts.
The report draws on the findings of the regional workshop Thinking in Alternatives: Exploring Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Community-Driven Approaches to Content Moderation for Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, convened by UNICRI and the Ministry of Home Affairs of Singapore on 2–3 December 2025 in Singapore. The workshop findings were complemented by consultations with international and national experts and desk-based research.
Building on UNICRI’s work on Cybercrime and Online Harms
The report builds on UNICRI’s Cybercrime and Online Harms Workstream, which seeks to bridge the gap between complex, technical threats and practical, human-centred approaches, ensuring that cyberspace remains safe and secure and not a vector for exploitation by malicious actors.
It also builds on longstanding cooperation between UNICRI and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) in the domains of cybersecurity and new technologies, particularly in addressing terrorist and violent extremist exploitation of digital technologies.
As online threats, technologies and methods continue to evolve, effective responses need to evolve with them. Thinking in Alternatives encourages practitioners and stakeholders to look beyond what is already known, draw on expertise across sectors and consider how complementary solutions can be adapted to specific contexts.
