The online space is a haven for extremists of all kinds. Although efforts to remove violent and extremist content are increasing, there is a widely accepted need to also contest extremist messages with counter messages designed to undermine and disrupt extremist narratives. While the majority of academic focus has been on large and well‐funded efforts linked to governments, this article considers the experiences of informal actors who are active in contesting extremist messaging but who lack the support of large institutions. Informal actors come without some of the baggage that accompanies formal counter message campaigns, which have been attacked as lacking in credibility and constituting “just more government propaganda.” This has been noted by some of the wider countering violent extremism industry and the appetite for incorporating “real‐world” content in their campaigns seems to be rising. This article fills a gap in our knowledge of the experiences of informal counter messaging actors. Through a series of in‐depth qualitative interviews it demonstrates that, despite the potentially serious risks of incorporating greater levels of informal content, there is an appetite among informal actors to engage with formal campaigns where they can be selective over who they work with and maintain a degree of control.

中文翻译：

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在线反暴力极端主义：非正式反消息参与者的经验

在线空间是各种极端分子的避风港。尽管消除暴力和极端主义内容的努力正在增加，但人们也广泛接受了将极端主义信息与旨在破坏和破坏极端主义叙事的对立信息进行反驳的需求。尽管大多数学术重点放在与政府相关的大型且资金充足的工作上，但本文考虑了活跃于极端主义信息斗争但缺乏大型机构支持的非正式参与者的经验。非正式行动者没有伴随正式的反击运动的包the，反抗运动由于缺乏信誉而受到攻击，构成了“更多的政府宣传”。一些更广泛的反暴力极端主义行业已经注意到了这一点，将“现实世界”内容纳入其竞选活动的意愿似乎正在上升。本文填补了我们对非正式反消息参与者的经验知识的空白。通过一系列深入的定性访谈，它表明，尽管可能会包含更多级别的非正式内容，但存在潜在的严重风险，非正式参与者之间还是有兴趣参与正式的运动，他们可以选择与谁合作和维护的对象一定程度的控制力。