Researchers developing tools to stop online radicalisation
Australian researchers are developing computer programs to stop the spread of online radicalisation.
But developers have told Fairfax Media that a ‘tool kit’ prepared for the federal Attorney General’s department six months ago has still not been adopted.
Initiatives developed at Curtin University included a program that automatically detects signs of radicalisation on Facebook profiles.
One of the researchers, Dr Anne Azza Aly, said those who have carried out an act of violent extremism have almost always left "warning behaviours" online.
"A large proportion of people will leak their intentions online," she said.
She is working with a British company to develop automating programs so they can scan Facebook profiles and pick up elements of extremism.
"It would flag a certain user's behaviour online, then we can go in and look more deeply at that user," Dr Aly said.
A spokesman for the Attorney General's department told Fairfax the Curtin University research findings completed in July had been incorporated into other online strategies.
