None of the sites required a user account or age verification to view content.None of the sites provided a user reporting mechanism for flagging illegal content. Only one of the 10 sites mentioned terrorism within its platform Terms of Service.Nine of the 10 sites hosted terrorist videos uploaded before December 2022.Each site enabled visitors to download video content directly to their devices.Each site returned terrorist content via its on-site video search bar.All 10 sites hosted Salafi-Jihadi and/or extreme right-wing terrorist video content.In 2022, the 10 sites received a total of 241 million visits from around the world. Sites were identified through ongoing monitoring of extreme right-wing communities on Telegram, which had either shared links to such sites or downloaded and shared videos from them. Human Digital analysed 10 gore sites to better understand the scale and nature of this issue, as well as how platforms, researchers and regulators might respond to combat this type of content. Many videos remain accessible months after being uploaded, reflecting a lack of moderation on gore video-sharing platforms, including for terrorist content. This includes official propaganda outputs from the Islamic State (IS) and the far-right Atomwaffen Division, as well as livestreams capturing mass shootings perpetrated by the Buffalo, Christchurch and Halle shooters. Gore sites are being used by violent extremist groups to view, download and share thousands of terrorist and violent extremist videos online. In this guest Digital Dispatch, Human Digital analysts outline how violent extremist groups have integrated gore sites into their tradecraft, as well as how gore sites are used as both video-sharing platforms and proxy file sharing services for extremist and terrorist video content. Human Digital analyses the online communication strategies of malign state and non-state actors and monitors their adoption and exploitation of new technologies. However, analysis indicates these sites also serve a secondary audience in the form of violent extremist groups. Gore sites serve as digital hubs for the sharing of real-life killings, torture, and other forms of violence, catering primarily to ‘ gore seekers’ a niche audience searching for graphic and disturbing material. The authors also provide their own recommendations for researchers and regulators. Key to these sites’ ability to host this content without moderation is the emergence of decentralised platforms like PeerTube, the subject of a recent ISD report. In this guest post for Digital Dispatches, analysts from Human Digital explore the use of ‘gore sites’ – repositories of extremely violent content – to host terrorist materials. By James Hardy and Christopher Stewart, Human Digital
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