Semantic Analysis against Foreign Fighters Recruitment Online Network

With the financial support of the Internal Security Fund of the European Union

SAFFRON UPDATEIssue No 1/2016, October 2016

IN THIS ISSUE

THE SAFFRON CONSORTIUM ................... 2

ABOUT SAFFRON ..................................... 3

PROJECT’S DEVELOPMENT ...................... 4

PREVIOUS EVENTS ................................. 13

UPCOMING EVENTS ............................... 14

IMPRINT ................................................. 15

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THE SAFFRON CONSORTIUM

VISEO is the lead partner of the consortium, which includes also Holmes Semantic Solutions another French enterprise; DIST, a leading joint structure of Politecnico and Università di Torino; Demetra SPV, an innovative Italian SME and “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy, a higher education military institution, part of the Romanian Intelligence Service.

ABOUT SAFFRON

Semantic Analysis against Foreign Fighters Recruitment Online Network (SAFFRON) is a 2-year European project. The aim of SAFFRON is to build a system able to support early detection of foreign fighters’ recruitment by terrorist groups in Europe, with a focus on ISIS and Al-Qaeda. It consists in studying recruitment communication strategies on social media (e.g. narrations, argumentative tropes and myths used), and their evolution in time, as well as identification of needs, values, cultural and social contexts of the target.

A specific “social media guide” will be developed in order to give detailed guidelines to the social media team for managing different communicative situations, user generated contributions and reactions. Furthermore, a “social media crisis protocol” will be identified in order to identify critical communicative situations and design correct interactions.

The main objectives of SAFFRON are:

• Objective 1: Deliver and test a tool to be used by all relevant players (whichare also part of the consortium) to identify in a timely fashion both all internetactivities of direct and indirect recruitment of Foreign Fighters and all signals(weak or strong) pointing at radicalization of single individuals

• Objective 2: Analyse the recent trends about recruitment of young Europeanpeople by terrorist groups

• Objective 3: Analyse the online communication strategy of terrorist groups anddevelop a social media campaign to contrast their propaganda

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PROJECT’S DEVELOPMENT

WP 1 - Activity 1.1: Desktop researchIn the framework of the WP 1 of the Saffron Project, a preliminary analysis of the academic literature and international periodicals focused on the use of internet by terrorist groups. Though systematic studies on this specific topic do not exist, it is possible to have an overview on the main features of the phenomenon, through exploring the various papers and reports recently published. Specifically, this study shows that the terrorist organisations, mainly the ISIS, use various communication tools (such as social media, magazines, video, videogames, e-books, touristic brochures) for persuading young peoples to start a process of radicalisation which can have various results, including the recruitment as foreign fighters. Moreover, from this analysis emerged that various people with different roles (for instance, disseminators or facilitators) are involved in the frame of the communication strategy run by the terrorist organisations in order to reach a very wide range of targets. Finally, this analysis focused on the motivations, which potentially bring young people to start a radicalisation path. The reasons why youngsters are attracted by extremist discourses can be linked to various aspects of the life, including religion, politics and ideology, socio-economic conditions, existential problems and suggestions of media models.

WP2

In WP2, we move on different aspects. Firstly, we collected the sources identified by MVNIA and DIST to be crawled for the analysis and the functional requirements concerning the tool and the data to extract. We wrote down those informations in the deliverable D.2.1. Then, we implemented a big data crawler for “twitter” and “WordPress” blogs. This crawler is able to extract and store textual elements (posted/shared messages, replies …) to be passed to the semantic engine and metadata such as publication time, author, number of followers, number of favourites etc. We progress also on the SAFFRON tool and his Graphical user Interface. We collected the functional requirements for visualization with MVNIA and wrote it down in the deliverable D.2.5. Currently, we are working on the visualization tool and you can find below some screenshots of the main implemented functionalities.

1) Managing and retrieving the monitored accounts with associated filters andmetadata

2) Representing information about an account and its activities statistics

• Statistics: trend regarding the number of posts containing a certainkeyword

• Interactions: reviewing the interactions between a person and peoplewho contact him frequently and potentially add a new account to monitor

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3) Retrieving messages/replies/shares with associated filters

WP 3 - Semantic AnalysisDuring these first months of the project, Ho2S has developed a first version of the semantic analysis tool. It includes language identification, the detection of Named Entities and terminology using automatic tools as well as the classification of specific terms defined by experts at MNVIA into pre-defined semantic classes. Those terms and classes are considered as relevant for detecting radicalization and will allow the detection of radicalization indicators in a given profile via the contextual grounding module.

At the moment, the semantic analysis has been applied to 12,000 thousand tweets crawled by Viseo. In order to explore the results and keep improving the semantic analysis, Ho2S put in place a graphical interface based on SentiMiner that allows the detailed study of the semantic analysis and the data behind it. Deliverable 3.1 explains in detail how to use this interface. Furthermore, Ho2S has deployed the semantic analysis tool as a web-service to provide easy integration of this analysis into SAFFRON platform developed by Viseo.

Here there you can see a couple of examples of the created interface: the first one shows the initial screen, with all the semantic classes shown.

The second screen shot shows the output when we select “hate” semantic class, that means, when we apply a filter that will show only the documents that contain words that have been defined to belong to this class. That allows us to see the co-occurrence of terms (term-cloud shows all terms found in these documents) and the actual documents (tweets in our case) that come out from the filter.

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WP 4As requested by the timeline of the SAFFRON project, Demetra SPV srls ha designed and implemented a new set of tools that will be part of the SAFFRON project.

The first component to be released has been the GUI – Graphical User Interface. SAFFRON GUI has been designed to be compliant with existing European laws related to accessibility and usability issues.

http://uipack.saffron-project.eu/

Accessibility, usability, and inclusive design are closely related. Their goals, approaches, and guidelines overlap significantly. For these reasons, and in most situations, such as when designing and developing SAFFRON websites and applications, it is most effective to address them together.

Accessibility

Accessibility addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments. For the web, accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with SAFFRON websites and tools, and that they can contribute equally without barriers.

Usability

Usability and user experience design is about designing SAFFRON Framework to be effective, efficient, and satisfying. Specifically, ISO defines usability as the “extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction in a specified context of use” (in ISO 9241-11).

Inclusion

Inclusive design, universal design, and design for all involves designing products, such as websites, to be usable by everyone to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation. Inclusion addresses a broad range of issues including access to and quality of hardware, software, and Internet connectivity; computer literacy and skills; economic situation; education; geographic location; and language — as well as age and disability. We want that all the stakeholders can operate on SAFFRON without any difficulties, taking full advantage of the features offered by our innovative and integrated system.

While accessibility focuses on people with disabilities, many accessibility requirements also improve usability for everyone. Accessibility especially benefits people without disabilities who are in limiting situations, such as using the web on a mobile phone when visual attention is elsewhere, in bright sunlight, in a dark room, in a quiet environment, in a noisy environment, and in an emergency. Accessibility includes both:

• Requirements that are more specific to people with disabilities — for example,they ensure that websites work well with assistive technologies such asscreen readers that read aloud web pages, screen magnifiers that enlarge webpages, and voice recognition software that is used to input text. Most of theserequirements are technical and relate to the underlying code rather than to thevisual appearance.

• Requirements that are also general usability principles — which are includedin accessibility requirements because they can be significant barriers to peoplewith disabilities. For example, a website that is developed so that it can be usedwithout a mouse is good usability; and use without a mouse is an accessibilityrequirement because people with some physical and visual disabilities cannotuse a mouse at all. In defining accessibility requirements, care is usually taken tonot include aspects that impact all people similarly, and only include aspects thatput person with a disability is at a disadvantage relative to a person without adisability.

Usability and user experience design significantly overlap with accessibility when “specified users” includes people with a range of disabilities and “specified context of use” includes accessibility considerations such as assistive technologies. However, the needs of people with disabilities are often not sufficiently addressed in usability practice and research.

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Additionally, accessibility includes a technical aspect that is usually not a focus of usability. In practice, basic accessibility for our team is a prerequisite for SAFFRON applications usability.

WP5 Dissemination – Public activities and events

SAFFRON at the International Conference Intelligence in the Knowledge Society, 13-14 October, Bucharest, www.intelligencestudies.ro

Saffron team members - Nadia Derbas (IT specialist, Viseo), Cristina Ivan (Head of Security Studies Department, National Institute for Intelligence Studies , ANIMV) participated as speakers at the International Conference Intelligence in the Knowledge Society, 13-14 October, Bucharest.

Initiated by the „Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy, the conference aims to bring together scholars and practitioners in the field of intelligence and security studies, law enforcement agencies and governmental policy makers, to discuss together major challenges to sustainable security and intelligence.

• The SAFFRON Project was presented during the panel dedicated to Intelligencecooperation patterns for 21st century building. The SAFFRON team outlinedthe framework of the project, the methodology employed in determining theindicators of radicalization, as well as a series of innovative techniques thatSAFRON brings in the early detection of terrorist activities. The presentationalso had an applicative character, Nadia Derbas delivering a demo presentationof the SAFFRON tool, which focused on the software functionalities. Among theparticipants at the conference, there were practitioners coming from Europeanintelligence services and law enforcement agencies, which expressed interesttowards the SAFFRON tool and appreciated it as being an intuitive and highlyuseful tool to be employed in the fight against terrorism.

Authors: Frederique Segond, Nadia Derbas, Sara Monaci, Cristina Ivan, Teodora Dobre.

• Practitioners’ Workshop: Under the framework of the International ConferenceIntelligence in the Knowledge Society, 13-14 October, Bucharest, the SAFFRONteam members organized a meeting with experts and practitioners in preventingand countering terrorism. Pursuant to the development of the SAFFRON tool,the meeting was designed as a framework in which the first demo versionof the tool to be presented and discussed with 16 experts and practitionersattending the meeting (practitioners in the field of CT, experts on OSINT analysisand psychologists working with the Romanian Intelligence Service). Under thecoordination and assistance of both an IT expert from VISEO (Nadia Derbas)and MVNIA project team, the practitioners tested the software and providedfeedback. All participants assessed the tool to be easy and intuitive and theindicator approach was evaluated as extremely helpful and well-designed.

SAFFRON at the International Congress Mind over Technology, 26-27 October, Bucharest

www.mindovertechnology.ro

Saffron team member Teodora Dobre (researcher, National Institute for Intelligence Studies, ANIMV) will attend the International Congress Mind over Technology, 26-27 October, Bucharest organized by the Behavioral Research Center and Belac Academy, in partnership with International Institute of Applied Psychology and Human Science, Interdocpol, and the Research Center for the Prevention of Bioterrorism.

The congress aims to bring to the attention of specialists and people interested in art, the importance of the human factor in different areas of action, the uniqueness of each individual’s connection between the perception of reality and human behavior approach. The main themes of debate during the congress include Security in public and private institutions, Cyber intelligence Current Threats, Security and genetics, Emergency management and Stress management.

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The Saffron project will be presented during the panel dedicated to forms of war and emergent vulnerabilities. The presentation, dedicated to analyzing the radicalization process of European youth under the influence of online terrorist propaganda discusses the way in which social media is being used by individuals and terrorist groups (e.g. DAESH) in transitioning from non-violence to violent extremism. Based on research carried out within the SAFFRON project, the study highlights the most important tendencies of online radicalization, as used by terrorist groups in their propaganda dissemination and foreign fighters’ recruitment.

Authors: Teodora Dobre, Frederique Segond, Nadia Derbas, Sara Monaci, Cristina Ivan.

WP 6 - Activity 6.2: Concept explorationOne of the main goals of the SAFFRON Project is to analyse the online communication strategy of terrorist groups and their evolution in time, and developing a social media campaign as prevention of radicalisation among youngsters. To set up this campaign several activities are envisaged, including focus groups of experts (as qualified testimonials) and young people (as potential target of propaganda) who should discuss and share ideas on the phenomenon and give suggestions for identifying contents and format of the campaign itself. In fact, the goal of the focus group is analysing, using a participatory approach, different narratives and counter-narratives related to the phenomenon with regard to English and French on line contents such as Internet videos, social media profiles, blogs etc. To date, a set of focus groups (five in Italy and two in France) has been organised. The main issues that constitute a very wide and complex phenomenon, as emerged from the analysis of the literature, has been used for triggering discussions among participants of the workshops. Then, the debates have been focused on three specific plights: radicalisation process and motivations; role of internet/social media VS. face-to-face relation; identification of counter/alternative narratives for tackling the propaganda of ISIS. Moreover, a comparative perspective based on two different research fields (Italy and France), starting from local cases of radicalised youngsters, was adopted.

PREVIOUS EVENTS

VOX-Pol Network of Excellence (NoE) Internet and Radicalisation

Saffron participated to the International Workshop: Internet and Radicalisation - 8/9 March 2016, Hamburg organised by VOX-Pol Network of Excellence (NoE) - http://www.voxpol.eu

VOX-Pol Mid-Project Conference

Saffron participated to the conference http://voxpol.eu/events/vox-pol-mid-project-conference-taking-stock-of-research-on-violent-online-political-extremism/ which was organized by the VOX-POL excellence network on radicalization and violent extremism in Dublin, in June 23-24, 2016. Explaining Islamic State Online Propaganda: A Transmedia Approach, paper was presented at this Conference.

The Internal Security Fund

The European Commission (Directorate-General Migration and Home Affairs) organized February 16th in Brussels a kick-off meeting for the coordinators of the selected projects for 3 thematics of the 2014 work programme :

• RADX : Preventing Radicalisation To Terrorism and Violent Extremism• LAWX : Law Enforcement Information Exchange• DRUG : EU Drugs Policy Initiatives• SAFFRON : is one of them (for RADX thematic) so Viseo went there.

Kick-off meeting

The SAFFRON kick-off meeting was held in Grenoble on 10th and 11th February 2016.

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Meeting SAFFRON

Partners organised a general meeting at the headquarters of Holmes Semantic Solution. The event was held in Grenoble in Rue Claude Genin 14, on 27th and 28th September 2016.

UPCOMING EVENTSTerrorism and Social Media Conference

The research team of the Saffron Project will present some results of the analysis included in the paper A methodology to identify extremist discourse strategy at The Terrorism and Social Media Conference - Swansea University Camp, 27/28 June 2017 http://terrorismandsocialmedia.com/

Mid-term workshop

A workshop will be organised in Turin during 2017 (March) by DIST, to discuss with the project advisors and relevant stakeholders about the intermediate results of SAFFRON. The focus will be on methodological and sociological aspects of the project.

IMPRINT

Novareckon srl

Via Bovio 6 – Novara – Italy

www.novareckon.it/en

Contacts:Christian Violi (violi@novareckon.it)

Pictures:All the pictures are labelled for non-commercial resue.

The picture at pages 13 - 14 has been taken during meetings.

Co-funded by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union