ii. Identify red flags of radicalization

A further AI use case for countering terrorism online concerns the use of AI-powered technology to help identify individuals at risk of radicalization in online communities to facilitate appropriate investigation and intervention, which, as already noted, is an increasingly pertinent phenomenon online. It is also one that is impossible to detect using traditional law enforcement methods.

While radicalization is a complex social phenomenon and the path to radicalization is very personal and often political, machine learning techniques such as NLP can provide valuable support to law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies, as well as for that matter relevant other actors within the community such as social workers. NLP can be used, for instance, to identify keywords that may indicate the state of radicalization of a social media account or the vulnerability of an individual to terrorist narratives online. It can also be helpful to recognize specific behavioural patterns of individuals, such as consuming or searching for terrorist and violent extremist content which fits radicalization indicators.

The European Union (EU)-funded Real-time Early Detection and Alert System for Online Terrorist Content (RED-Alert) Project is one example of a tool aiming to detect early stages of radicalization while seeking to cater for high privacy and security standards. RED-Alert uses NLP, SNA and complex event processing to collect, process, visualize and store online data related to terrorist groups, including early stages of radicalization based on social media content.71 The tool supports the search for known keywords or subjects in content that has not been identified as relevant yet. Additionally, the tool includes an anonymization and de-anonymization process of the data that adapts to organizational processes of the law enforcement agencies, which seems promising also for other areas dealing with sensitive data. The RED-Alert project concluded in late 2020, with law enforcement agencies involved in piloting the platform indicating that it offered a significant improvement over tools they currently use.72 Notwithstanding this, it is important to note that the platform has been used only in a test phase and thus its operability outside testing environments remains to be seen.

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71 See https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/740688. 72 International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. (Oct. 29,2020). Red-Alert Final conference recording. Accessible at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=l6ndaCudyJk.