Revontulet

No day shall erase you from the memory of time. Today I was honored to be shown the 9/11 memorial in NYC by survivors who shared their experiences of that day, and its aftermath with myself and the Revontulet team. I will forever be grateful for that experience. As a survivor-founded company we never forget why we do what we do. Still, it is important for us all to, from time to time, stop for a moment to acknowledge it. This week I was fortunate enough to bring together some of our team as we visited Eradicate Hate Global Summit and New York. Both provided opportunities to connect with fellow survivors, to hear their stories and recognize their struggles. On our way from Pittsburgh to NYC we also stopped by the memorial to Flight 93. While we every day live and breathe our mission to end terror to make the world safer for all it is important that we remember those who are no longer with us, those who live on and that they inform why we do what we do. Countering terrorism is not an abstract mission, an opportunity to advance careers, or an intellectual exercise. It has real world impact, and it matters. Our work cannot, and should never be detached from the reality of terror and the devastation it causes. We must always remember why we do what we do. As a founder, colleague and survivor I’ve been honored to share these days with our amazing team, and with colleagues from across the sector. Our experiences with terror are varied, but coming together, listening and acknowledging it’s human impact is vital. It makes it real. I am grateful to my colleagues, and to my fellow members of “the club nobody should ever want to join,” as we shoulder by shoulder continue to strive for a safer world for all.

We've got our table set up at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit featuring an overview of Revontulet's network maps, services, and projects! Having so many awesome conversations. So excited to share the fruits of our labor!

🚨 Reminder: Sign up for Bias Bounty 2! 🚨 🔥 Don’t miss your chance to participate in our second Bias Bounty challenge, in partnership with Revontulet! After a successful first edition, we're back with a new focus: counterterrorism in computer vision (CV). 👁️🗨️ Help us develop models to identify far-right extremist content disguised on social media, and uncover gaps in the use of AI as a counterterrorism tool. 💡 Intermediate and Advanced levels are available, so there's something for everyone ready to make a real impact in AI safety and security! 🤝 Ready to take on the challenge? Our Fellow Ayşegül Güzel tells you more on this video. Sign up using the link in the comments.

How does terrorism affect you? Most of us rarely consider this question. Still, terrorism impacts our lives, jobs, and companies, sometimes in unexpected ways. At Revontulet, we make it our business to think about terrorism so that you don’t have to. Our most recent insight explores the perhaps unexpected relationship between violent extremism and pop icon Taylor Swift. Following an attack on a Swift-themed event this summer, riots driven by the far-right spread across the UK. Swift was also forced to cancel concerts in Vienna due to threats of Islamist terrorism in the weeks that followed. Terrorists frequently target tourist destinations, concert venues, and events. Over the summer, the Revontulet team was focused on large-scale events to understand the threat landscape and support our clients in taking measures to keep audiences safe. By working with events and destinations, we strive to ensure that audiences can enjoy extraordinary experiences without concern for their safety. The last thing we want is for concert-goers to have to think about terrorism while enjoying a night out and a great performance. While organizers, venues, and producers should focus on creating extraordinary experiences for audiences, our dedicated analysts are excited to provide threat intelligence, analysis, and modeling to ensure audiences can enjoy experiences without concern. Please reach out and schedule a call to learn more about how we can keep your company, events, and community safe. https://lnkd.in/dTQY4_Ne

We are thrilled to partner with HumaneIntelligence for a Bias Bounty to advance the use of AI in uncovering extremist content online. Centering on far-right extremist groups in Europe, the Nordic region, and beyond and the rise of AI-generated content, the goal is to train a CV model to understand how hateful visual propaganda can be disguised and manipulated to evade detection on social media platforms. Participants will be tasked with developing an image identification solution capable of extracting, discerning, and interpreting context related to counterterrorism. The outcome of this challenge will assess the robustness and reveal potential gaps in the feasibility and efficacy of applying machine learning as a tool in counterterrorism efforts. Challenge participants compete for $10,000 in prizes - $4000 for intermediate and $6000 for advanced challenge winners. In addition, your work may be featured in Revontulet's suite of counterterrorism solutions. Read the press release for the challenge here: https://lnkd.in/dAVWSdfS

HumaneIntelligence's next algorithmic bias bounty challenge will launch later this week! We’re teaming up with Revontulet for a new challenge that will test the boundaries of AI-generated images. This challenge focuses about detecting hidden extremist propaganda on social media platforms. We invite everyone age 18+ to participate in this upcoming algorithmic bias bounty challenge. The sign-up form will be released shortly. Please let us know if you have any questions, and we hope you will participate!

We are very excited to be partnering with HumaneIntelligence for this challenge to explore what can be achieved in using AI for counter terrorism and online safety!

Monday saw the arrest of Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, two leaders in the network known as the Terrorgram collective. There have, over the past several years, been multiple far-right, accelerationist attacks, including mass shootings, stabbings, and attacks on infrastructure tied to and inspired by the network. At Revontulet and the Khalifa Ihler Institute, we have been tracking the evolution of and threats they pose to communities, companies, and infrastructure. Tracking nebulous networks of what on the surface appears to "just be" be overly online individuals, and that inspires attacks that often are described and viewed in isolation as "lone-actor" or "self-directed" poses numerous challenges for a sector set up to assess the threats posed by designated foreign terrorist groups with clear leadership structures and lines of command. Both are important, but as we increasingly see threats posed by networks such as Terrorgram, that was fundamental in developing the data model for Revontulet. Our understanding of networked extremism allows us to map, model, and analyze complex relationships, contextualizing events and behaviour to provide in-depth intelligence, keeping our clients safe and protecting their services from abuse by terrorist and extremist actors. Get in touch if you want to learn more about how this work may increase safety for you, your clients and your organization. To learn more about the Terrorgram network, the threat it poses, and the recent arrests, check out this article in FRANCE 24 featuring Joshua Farrell-Molloy, Benjamin Noys, and myself. https://lnkd.in/dFaSEUDr

At Revontulet, we've been following the riots following the attack on young girls attending a Taylor Swift-themed event on July 29th closely. While we've been deeply concerned about the riots and the attacks on migrants, mosques, and minorities across the UK, we're also worried about the impact the riots have on far-right movements globally, both serving as a platform for recruitment and for escalating violence both within the UK and beyond. In our monitoring of global extremist networks, we have seen widespread support of the UK rioters, both across Europe and in the US. The rioters serve as inspiration and are amplified across well-known and established extremist networks. In some of the most prominent channels and groups, we've seen instruction manuals on how to perform serious acts of violence being shared. We've also seen engagement from members of groups where the sharing of such instructions, incitement to violence, and encouragement of terrorism is common practice. This includes engagement by individuals associated with the Terrorgram network, which since April has been a designated terrorist organization in the UK. In the linked article, I've shared some notes on our observations so far with Bloomberg - including ties, support, and associations with Active Clubs (far-right fight clubs) and the Terrorgram network. https://lnkd.in/dsypQ_Hx

Our team has been tracking the riots, violence, and its supporters online following the attack in Southport on the 29th of July. Our CEO, Bjørn Ihler, has shared some notes on our observations so far with Bloomberg, including ties, support, and associations with Active Clubs and the Terrorgram network, which the UK government has designated a terrorist organization since April.