Digital Malevolence: The Dark Psychology of Online Manipulation, Exploitation, and Violence

Caroline Ewing and Anne Speckhard

Introduction

The rapid evolution of online extremist ecosystems has vastly shifted our understanding of radicalization and violence, particularly as contemporary movements increasingly transcend coherent political, religious, or ideological boundaries. This paper introduces the concept of Digital Malevolence, a behavioral framework for understanding how the maladaptive behaviors associated with socially malevolent personality traits manifest, spread, and are reinforced within digital environments. Drawing upon the Dark Tetrad of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism, we examine the recurring patterns of manipulation, exploitation, cruelty, humiliation, and notoriety-seeking across the emerging and elusive Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) ecosystems.

We argue that these behaviors are not simply features of these communities, but central behavioral and psychological mechanisms through which vulnerable individuals are exploited, status and influence are established, and increasingly harmful behavior is normalized and encouraged. We are particularly concerned with the grooming, sextortion, coercive control, sadistic violence, and the use of violence and transgression as forms of identity construction and social currency. Moving beyond ideological classification alone, we propose Digital Malevolence as a complementary behavioral threat assessment framework for identifying alarming patterns that have been followed by the exponential growth of these NVE networks.

Finally, we introduce a three-tier approach to prevention and intervention centered on behavioral detection, threat and escalation assessment, and prevention and disruption. By shifting our focus away from static ideological categories and focusing on observable patterns of behavior, the Digital Malevolence framework offers a more adaptive approach to understanding and addressing the complex relationship among online extremism, exploitation, criminality, and victimization.

The Psychology of Digital Malevolence

Throughout history, many questions have resulted from our seemingly innate desire to understand who we are, how we exist in our world, and why we behave the way we do. Centuries ago, these questions fell within the realms of philosophy and religion but, with the emergence of fields such as psychology, neuroscience, and sociology, we now have new lens through which we can approach these questions. However, certain aspects of human nature remain elusive, with the concept of “evil” presenting as one of the most difficult phenomena for us to define and explain. Countless scholars have proposed various conceptualizations of evil, yet it remains what has been referred to as “a thick rope of many complex, twisted, and intertwined strands,” (Simon, 2000, p. 24). Despite the varying definitions of evil, for the purpose of this discussion, we will refer to Otto Kernberg’s (2009) conceptualization of evil as “…the shocking expression of primitive aggression, destructive behavior towards others that, in its violence, evinces a wildly excessive quality, a radical callousness, and a lack of compassion that seem to defy the basic nature of humanity” (p. 357). Today, manifestations of evil remain evident across both structural institutions and interpersonal relationships, shaping behaviors that range from everyday acts of exploitation and cruelty to large-scale acts of violence. While historically framed as sin, depravity, and moral corruption viewed from the lens of the victim (Baumeister & Clark, 2015), modern psychology has shifted these conversations to those that implicate personality, behavior, cognition, and environmental influence in the darkness that we call human evil.

Over the years, numerous attempts to study evil have relied on varying approaches, including research examining the neurobiological correlates of antisocial behavior (Raine, 2013), genetic influences on aggression (Caspi et al., 2022) and, as we will focus on in this paper, the character of so-called “socially malevolent” personalities (Book et al., 2015; Lee & Ashton, 2005; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Central to our discussion is the Dark Tetrad, formerly known as the Dark Triad, that is a constellation of four distinct, but overlapping traits that are associated with aversive behavior, including narcissism, Machiavellianism, sadism, and psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002; Spain et al., 2014; Charbol et al., 2009). Despite varying behavioral manifestations across these traits, they all share a common tendency toward manipulation, exploitation, callousness, domination, and the intentional infliction of harm upon others.

While these traits have traditionally been conceptualized within offline contexts, the emergence of digitally mediated environments has fundamentally shifted how socially malevolent behavior is expressed, reinforced, disseminated and, in some cases, cultivated in individuals who may not have had access to outlets to engage in this behavior prior to the advent of the Internet. Many of the features of online spaces, such as anonymity, algorithmic amplification, online disinhibition, and virality all create conditions in which behaviors associated with the Dark Tetrad can flourish, often without immediate consequence. Thus, for the purposes of this paper, our interest is in the emergence and growing manifestation of these Dark Tetrad traits within digitally mediated environments as Digital Malevolence, a new behavioral label which we explore herein and define as a recurring pattern of antisocial online behavior that is rewarded through attention, status, influence, and social validation (Figure 1). These concepts shown in Figure 1 are elucidated in the subsequent sections of this paper.

Figure 1: Digital Malevolence Framework

Our conceptualization of Digital Malevolence is particularly useful when examining the growing threat of the rapidly evolving form of Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE). Until recently, extremist movements were defined by their organization around coherent ideological, political, social, or religious objectives (See Moskalenko & McCauley, 2020; Moghaddam, 2005; Yakub, 2023). NVE, on the other hand, is characterized by its ideological fluidity, decentralized online networks, and the glorification of violence, suffering, and social destabilization not as a means to an ideological end, but as ends in themselves (Argentino, 2025a; Ware, 2025). However, although many scholars have argued that nihilistic violent movements lack a coherent ideology, we contend that these movements operate through a psychosocial based ideological framework that appeals to deep vulnerability, feelings of powerlessness, lack of purpose, significance and belonging and diverts this pain into  expressions of power, rage and hatred directed into the destruction of self, others, and society at large.

Nihilistic violent extremists, as defined by the FBI, are individuals who engage in extremist actions due to “a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability,” (FBI, 2025; Ware, 2025). Although, across these online NVE spaces, the specific narratives may vary, many of these communities mirror each other’s behavioral patterns, particularly through tactics such as coercion, grooming, humiliation, performative violence, and the pursuit of notoriety. Thus, these behaviors typically transcend politically defined ideological boundaries, suggesting that the NVE ecosystem is not defined by shared coherent political beliefs, but shared behavioral dynamics and psychopathologies.

Within these communities, individuals possessing elevated subclinical levels of Dark Tetrad traits are uniquely positioned to thrive in environments that reward manipulation, domination, cruelty, and transgression, while also being vulnerable to individuals who seek to exploit their psychological tendencies. In fact, a growing body of research supports the relationship between Dark Tetrad traits and multiple antisocial online behaviors, such as trolling (Buckels et al., 2018), cyberbullying (Brown et al., 2019), and online sexual violence (Shim et al., 2007). Across the NVE ecosystem, the structure of these platforms both amplifies and reinforces these behaviors through mechanisms such as anonymity, group validation, and social reward systems. Here, these individuals find themselves in a symbiotic relationship with digital environments wherein their proclivities are normalized, rewarded, and escalated over time (Argentino, 2025).

Thus, we argue that the Dark Tetrad and our conceptualization of Digital Malevolence offer a useful framework for understanding the behavioral dynamics that characterize contemporary NVE ecosystems. By shifting from a solely political ideology-based framework that is largely absent in the NVE ecosystem to one that focuses on the observable manifestations of Digital Malevolence and it’s psycho-sociological underpinnings , researchers, practitioners, and law enforcement may be better equipped to identify behavioral warning signs, assess risk, and develop intervention strategies that are capable of addressing the ever-evolving nature of online extremism.

Digital Malevolence in NVE Ecosystems

As we have discussed, our conceptualization of Digital Malevolence provides a useful framework for understanding how socially malevolent personality traits manifest within online environments. While the Dark Tetrad traits are conceptually distinct, their frequent convergence in their patterns of manipulation, exploitation, humiliation, and notoriety-seeking make their presence particularly visible within NVE ecosystems. Rather than appearing as isolated expressions of individual personality traits, these behaviors function as interconnected components of a broader ecosystem in which this cruelty is normalized and socially reinforced. As such, the following sections will examine several of the primary manifestations of digital malevolence and the Dark Tetrad traits that contribute to their emergence in NVE online spaces.

Manipulation, Grooming, and Exploitative Control

One of the most prominent manifestations of digital malevolence within the NVE ecosystem is the strategic manipulation and exploitation of vulnerable individuals. Through systematic grooming, coercion, emotional manipulation, and deception, offenders are able to establish control over their victims while simultaneously reinforcing their own status and influence within the community (Argentino, Gay & Bastin, 2024; Argentino, 2024a; Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2025). Within the context of the Dark Tetrad, these behaviors reflect the characteristics associated with individuals with high subclinical levels of Machiavellianism and psychopathy and their tendency to view interpersonal relationships as instruments for achieving personal objectives at the cost of their victims (Kharaja et al., 2025; O’Boyle et al., 2012).

Research consistently demonstrates that individuals high in Machiavellianism possess strong manipulative tendencies and are particularly skilled at accurately identifying and effectively exploiting the vulnerabilities of others. For example, O’Boyle and colleagues (2012) described such individuals as “social chameleons” who are capable of adapting to and mimicking the behaviors and attitudes of others to gain their trust, establish rapport, and ultimately influence others for personal gain. Within NVE ecosystems, these abilities are especially valuable, as recruitment, victimization, and social control are often a function of an offender’s capacity to seemingly naturally detect and exploit users’ emotional, psychological, and developmental vulnerabilities.

Perhaps the most concerning manifestation of Digital Malevolence within the NVE ecosystem is the pervasive use of sextortion tactics. Defined by the FBI as “a form of exploitation in which offenders threaten to distribute sexually explicit material [of their victim] to coerce them into providing additional images, money or engaging in sexual acts and other forms of compliance,” sextortion has become a rapidly growing form of victimization within prominent NVE communities such as 764, CVLT, and the broader Com online ecosystem. Here, perpetrators exploit victims’ psychological vulnerabilities by cultivating trust, emotional dependence, and perceived intimacy before weaponizing sexually explicit material to compel continued compliance. For example, in 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported receiving 26,718 reports of financial sextortion, a nearly 149% increase from their 2022 report (NCMEC, 2024). Importantly, sextortion is implicated in several severe consequences for victims, such as extreme emotional distress, academic and professional disruption and, in some cases, self-harm and suicide (Ray & Henry, 2024; Wolak, 2016; FBI, 2024).

Within NVE communities, sextortion functions as more than a simple online criminal enterprise (Argentino, Gay & Bastin, 2024; Argentino, 2025a, 2024a). Rather, it serves as a mechanism of coercive control through which offenders establish dominance, recruit vulnerable users, and reinforce status hierarchies within the group. In fact, this act has become so pervasive among certain networks, like 764, that when members acquire sexually explicit content from their victims, they compile this content and create so-called “LoreBooks” to systematically blackmail their victims (Argentino, 2025a) and manipulate them into committing further heinous acts. Through strategic use of fear, humiliation, and blackmail, users are compelled to produce increasingly graphic and extreme content, including videos of themselves engaging in self-harm, bestiality, and acts of incest (Argentino, 2024a, 2025a; Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2024). It is clear that these dynamics highlight a central feature of digital malevolence, that lies in the transformation of interpersonal manipulation into a socially reinforced mechanism for acquiring power, influence, and status within online communities.

Humiliation, Cruelty, and Sadistic Reinforcement

Another defining manifestation of Digital Malevolence involves the normalization and reinforcement of cruelty. Across NVE networks, the suffering of others is not solely a byproduct of exploitation, but a source of the entertainment, social validation, and group cohesion that underly the somewhat hidden NVE ideology of moving from prey in the real world  to predator in the toxic online world they have created for themselves. (Ewing & Speckhard, 2026). Here, behaviors such as harassment, humiliation, coercive self-harm, and degradation rituals are not only required, but celebrated.

Within the context of the Dark Tetrad, psychopathy and sadism provide a useful framework through which these dynamics can be understood. Psychopathy, as described by Porter and colleagues (2006) is a construct that characterizes those who are “manipulative, callous, remorseless, impulsive, irresponsible, and antisocial individuals with an emotionally barren disposition,” (p. 611). On the other hand, sadism reflects individuals with “a passion for unrestricted power over another sentient being,” (Fromm, 1973, p. 6) who “derive pleasure from the control, domination, and suffering of others,” (Meloy, 1997, p. 630). Put simply, within the context of inflicting cruelty upon others, psychopathy may help explain the absence of remorse, while sadism provides insight into the presence of enjoyment. Further, multiple studies have implicated psychopathy and sadism in antisocial online behaviors. For example, March and Steele (2020) examined trolling behavior and found that higher psychopathy and sadism scores were associated with higher trolling tendencies. Similarly, when presented with different social scenarios, Lee (2025) found that psychopathy and sadism both significantly predicted the participants’ choice of the social painful option in the presented scenario.

Digital environments are particularly conducive to the expression of these traits, as features such as anonymity, online disinhibition, and algorithmic amplification reduce social restraints, while rewarding transgressive behavior (Buckels et al., 2014; Smoker & March, 2017; Kircaburun & Griffiths, 2018; Argentino, 2024a). Within NVE ecosystems, these sadistic and psychopathic tendencies frequently manifest through coercive self-harm, humiliation rituals, graphic content sharing, and the public degradation of victims (Argentino, 2024a, 2024b; Dortkardesler & Magnus, 2025).

Importantly, these behaviors often extend beyond instrumental goals. Manifestos, community narratives, and group norms that frequently celebrate domination, suffering, and violence are critical components of the psychosocial ideology that underlies the NVE movement (Ewing & Speckhard, 2026). Through language such as “execute without mercy,” and “pain is power,” violence and cruelty are further positioned as sacred and virtuous actions (Dortkardesler & Magnus, 2025). Thus, their prevalence across ideologically diverse NVE communities suggests that cruelty itself may function as a unifying behavioral norm, independent of any coherent political ideological commitment other than avoiding being predated upon by becoming the predator.

Notoriety, Identity, and Performative Violence

A third manifestation of digital malevolence involves the transformation of the aforementioned cruelty, exploitation, and transgression into a means for acquiring status and recognition. A substantial body of research examining narcissism and social media has consistently demonstrated that online environments provide especially fertile grounds for the status-seeking, self-presentation, and pursuit of validation that is attributed to narcissism (McCain & Campbell, 2016; Casale & Banchi, 2020; Alloway et al., 2014). For example, in a cross-sectional sample of 23,532 Norwegians, Andreassen and colleagues (2017) found that social media addiction was significantly associated with narcissism, while negatively associated with self-esteem. Further, Brailocskia and colleagues (2020) found in a sample of Facebook users that narcissism significantly predicted Facebook addiction. Simply put, through engagement metrics, audience visibility, and social feedback mechanisms, digital platforms transform attention into a valuable resource that rewards individuals with influence, recognition, and social standing.

Within many NVE communities, these dynamics take on a particularly concerning form, as visibility functions as a form of social currency (Bhatt & Mantua, 2023; Steltenpohl et al., 2018). Through mechanisms such as leaderboards, manifesto dissemination, and livestreaming, members of these communities are able to spread their content to a massive audience, adhering to Hobson’s (2023) conceptualization of the “theater of terrorism,” wherein terrorism is fundamentally performative and leveraged not only for chaos and destruction, but also media amplification and symbolic impact (see also Speckhard, 2006).

Here, the performance of violence and cruelty is a fundamental pillar in the NVE milieu wherein spectacle, as opposed to ideological devotion, underlies the perpetuation of violence (Argentino, 2024a, 2024b; Ewing & Speckhard, 2026; Smith et al., 2026). As users become further entrenched in these communities, psychological barriers to violence erode and distinctions increasingly blur between symbolic violence, and the operationalization of this violence (Ewing & Speckhard, 2026). Thus, violence is a mechanism through which users cultivate their reputations and construct identities.

Although these manifestations of digital malevolence have been discussed as separate constructs, they rarely occur in isolation. Acts of sextortion, coercive self-harm, humiliation rituals, and performative violence frequently overlap with elements of manipulation, domination, cruelty, and notoriety-seeking behavior. The recurring presence of these behaviors across ideologically fluid communities suggests that understanding how individuals behave within these ecosystems will ultimately provide greater insight into participation, escalation, and risk, rather than ideology alone. Consequently, the value of the Dark Tetrad lies less in its ability to explain a single behavior and more in its role in illuminating the broader constellation of digitally malevolent dynamics that emerge across NVE ecosystems.

Digital Malevolence as a Behavioral Threat Assessment Framework

As we have discussed, traditional counter-extremism frameworks have largely focused on ideology, grievance narratives, and movement affiliation when assessing risk. While these approaches remain valuable in many contexts, the emergence of ideologically fluid ecosystems, such as NVE, presents challenges for models that primarily rely on ideology as an indicator of threat. Thus, we propose the concept of Digital Malevolence as a complementary behavioral framework through which this form of extremism may be identified and assessed. Consequently, integrating behavioral indicators of Digital Malevolence into threat assessment frameworks may enhance practitioners’ ability to identify emerging risks within decentralized and online environments where ideology is fragmented, fluid, or entirely absent.

It is important to note that this framework (Figure 2) is not intended to replace ideological analyses, but to supplement them with a psychosociological analysis that is much needed when examining the NVE online ecosystem. By examining these behavioral dynamics in combination with ideological factors, researchers, practitioners, and trust and safety professionals may be better positioned to identify escalation pathways, disrupt recruitment processes, and intervene before online behaviors translate into offline harm.

Figure 2: Behavioral Indicators Linked to the Dark Tetrad

Trust and Safety Implications for NVE Prevention

The practical significance of our discussion regarding Digital Malevolence extends well beyond purely theoretical discussions of online behavior. In recent years, law enforcement agencies and technology companies have increasingly identified NVE-associated networks as emerging threats to public safety, particularly due to their involvement in the exploitation and victimization of minors (FBI, 2025; Argentino, 2025a). For example, in the United States, the FBI, across all 56 field offices, has identified over 450 subjects associated with NVE networks nationwide (Setera, 2026). Further, between 2020 and 2025, across 29 countries there were 194 individual arrests involving crimes tied to NVE communities that resulted in the harm, victimization, or killing of roughly 5,040 individuals (Ahmed, 2026). These trends are particularly concerning due to the disproportionate engagement of minors within these networks. For example, in a qualitative analysis of 174 NVE incidents captured on the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab’s NVE Tracker, 71.8% of the incidents involved individuals with at least one youth-facing indicator (Landress, 2026). Similarly, although the average age at the time of arrest is 20.4 years old, arrest records reveal the scope of minor involvement in NVE, with the youngest arrest involving an 11-year-old, and the youngest known victim at 8-years-old (Ahmed, 2026).

Researchers, law enforcement agencies, and trust and safety teams have documented the role of mainstream online platforms in facilitating interactions between perpetrators and vulnerable users through social networking, gaming, and communication services (Argentino et al., 2024; Argentino, 2025a; Ware, 2025). The presence of offenders on platforms such as Discord, Telegram, Roblox, and other online services illustrates the extent to which these behaviors transcend all corners of the technological environment. These digitally malevolent behaviors appear to migrate across digital spaces, adapting to the affordances and moderation practices of individual platforms and increasing exposure to youths who are vulnerable to the influences of these behaviors. Thus, if these behaviors represent recurring manifestations of Digital Malevolence, the question becomes how platforms can identify people with these traits and disrupt their radicalization efforts by intervening before they escalate and are able to recruit others.

Building upon our conceptualization of Digital Malevolence, we propose a three-tier (Figure 3) approach that emphasizes the identification, assessment, and disruption of behaviors associated with manipulation, exploitation, violence reinforcement, and social domination. This is especially relevant for technology companies and trust and safety teams who are often tasked with addressing harmful conduct that occurs across fragmented and rapidly evolving online environments. Here, we emphasize the implementation of strategies that focus on early detection, behavioral risk assessment, and targeted intervention.

Figure 3: Three-Tier Framework for Addressing Digital Malevolence

Tier 1: Behavioral Detection

While traditional models tend to focus on content, keywords, and ideological affiliation, one of the most critical components of any prevention and intervention strategy involves the identification of behavioral patterns associated with Digital Malevolence before they escalate into more serious forms of harm. Thus, trust and safety teams may benefit from supplementing content-based approaches with methods designed to identify patterns of manipulation, exploitation, coercion, and notoriety-seeking behavior regardless of the narratives accompanying them.

A growing body of research has already demonstrated the utility of existing computational approaches for identifying concerning behavioral and linguistic patterns online (Pennebaker et al., 2001; Pennebaker et al., 2003; Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2010). For example, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) has been widely utilized to detect and identify psychological constructs through language, including those that are indicative of hostility, dominance, and interpersonal orientation. Here, the relative frequencies of words are counted and divided into psychologically meaningful categories to assess individuals’ personality, drives, cognition, and emotion (Pennebaker et al., 2003; Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2010). Similarly, natural language processing (NLP) models have been employed to identify threats, harassment, extremist rhetoric and coercive communication patterns (Ni et al., 2020; Grenier et al., 2026). When combined with behavioral indicators, such as repeated outreach to vulnerable users, recruitment attempts, and sextortion-related activities, these approaches, especially when combined with machine learning technology and AI-based tools, may provide an important early layer of detection.

Tier 2: Threat Assessment and Escalation

Detection alone is insufficient without a framework for evaluating risk and determining which behaviors warrant intervention. Thus, threat assessment, defined by Borum and colleagues (1999) as “a set of investigative and operational activities to identify, assess, and manage persons who may pose a threat of violence,” (p. 327), is a necessary next step in this prevention and intervention process. One particularly useful approach requires the recognition of warning behaviors, defined simply as “factors which constitute change, and which are evidence of increasing or accelerating risk,” (Meloy et al., 2012, p. 260) and indicate the manifestation of “toxic changes in patterns of behavior which require an operational response,” (Meloy et al., 2012, . 260). Existing literature has identified specific warning behaviors, such as leakage, fixation, novel aggression, and energy bursts that provide insight into an individual’s progression from harmful online conduct toward real-world violence (Kaati et al., 2016; Almond et al., 2026).

For example, in their discussion on fame-seeking mass shooters (Lankford, 2016), Allwinn and colleagues (2024) explored the behavioral indicators of mass shooters who demonstrated notoriety-motivated warning behaviors. Although NVE is not strictly associated with mass shootings, some of the features associated with fame-seeking mass shooters, such as direct statements about becoming famous, mentioning famous or fictional role models with a history of violence, and posting on platforms both before and during the incident (Silva & Greene-Colozzi, 2021), mirror the narcissistic behavioral patterns seen on NVE networks. Similarly, the dissemination of manifestos, expressions of intent, and increasing preoccupation with violence may signal escalating risk when observed alongside patterns of manipulation, exploitation, or cruelty. Thus, we argue that it is critical for practitioners to assess behavioral clusters and trajectories over time, rather than evaluating isolated incidents, to allow for a more nuanced understanding of individual risk.

Tier 3: Prevention and Disruption

The final tier focuses on disrupting the conditions that allow Digital Malevolence to flourish within online environments. Throughout our discussion, we have emphasized that NVE ecosystems derive strength not only from their increasing membership, but also from the mechanisms through which manipulation, cruelty, and notoriety are social reinforced. As such, prevention and intervention efforts should extend beyond the removal of harmful content and instead focus on addressing the opportunities, incentives, and rewards that sustain these transgressive behaviors and implement strategies to encourage prosocial behavior.

This approach most closely resembles the principles of Clarke’s (2009) Situational Crime Prevention model that leverages techniques such as the reduction of anonymity, reduction of emotional arousal, neutralization of peer pressure, and the strengthening of formal surveillance (Ho et al., 2022; Cornish & Clarke, 2003; Clarke, 2009). Within the context of trust and safety, one promising approach involves disrupting the social reinforcement mechanisms that contribute to escalation. Through interventions that reduce visibility, limit algorithmic amplification, and restrict opportunities for offender glorification, platforms may reduce the social rewards associated with digitally malevolent behavior.

A second opportunity for intervention involves disrupting recruitment and exploitation pathways before significant harm occurs. For example, several technology companies have implemented measures designed to identify potentially coercive interactions, provide safety warnings when users may be at heightened risk of exploitation, and restrict contact between vulnerable users and suspected offenders (Stephenson et al., 2025; Gillett et al., 2022). Although these interventions were developed primarily to address sextortion, human trafficking, and child safety concerns, they illustrate how behavioral indicators can be leveraged to identify and disrupt harmful interactions.

Finally, prevention efforts should focus on increasing friction within high-risk environments and reducing the capacity of harmful networks to expand. For example, Safety-by-Design approaches emphasize the importance of intentionally embedding protective measures directly into platform architecture through features such as reporting mechanisms, user safeguards, and age-appropriate protections (Agha et al., 2023; Leiser & Murray, 2025; Zhang et al., 2026). Similarly, the disruption of coordinated networks and community infrastructure may prove more effective than repeatedly targeting individual accounts or localized content in isolation.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the value of the Digital Malevolence framework lies in its capacity to illuminate behavioral dynamics that transcend politically defined ideological boundaries. Across NVE ecosystems, recurring patterns of manipulation, exploitation, cruelty, and notoriety-seeking behavior appear with clear consistency, despite variation in the narratives espoused by individual participants. As digitally mediated forms of harm continue to evolve, it is imperative that practitioners recognize these behaviors as indicators of risk and move beyond static ideological classifications toward an adaptive and nuanced understanding of contemporary online threats.

It is immensely clear that the emergence of NVE signals an alarming transformation in how harmful online communities are organized and sustained. Rather than forming around coherent political, religious, or ideological worldviews, these ecosystems appear centered around shared behavioral practices, social reinforcement mechanisms, and the pursuit of influence, status and control. As such, NVE represents a phenomenon that is a manifestation of a larger trend in which technology facilitates new forms of interpersonal exploitation, cruelty, and violence. As online ecosystems continue to evolve, so does the complex interplay of extremism, criminality, exploitation, and other forms of digitally mediated harms. The future of behavioral threat assessment may therefore depend less on determining what individuals believe in favor of focusing on how individuals behave. Digital Malevolence not only provides a framework for understanding NVE, but a broader conceptual lens through which the next generation of online threats can be identified, studied, and disrupted.

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About the Authors

Caroline Ewing is a Research Fellow at ICSVE with a multidisciplinary background in psychology, public health, and criminal justice. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Drexel University, with a minor in Criminal Justice Studies, and a Master of Health Science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Mental Health.

Her work centers on understanding extremism through a trauma-informed lens, with a particular focus on child and adolescent development. She is especially interested in how psychological vulnerabilities and developmental factors intersect with pathways to radicalization, moving beyond purely ideological frameworks to examine behavioral and environmental influences.

Caroline’s research at ICSVE operates at the intersection of policy and empirical inquiry, with an emphasis on translating evidence-based findings into practical, prevention-oriented strategies. She has previously collaborated with leading experts in developmental and forensic psychology, contributing to research and policy initiatives aimed at improving threat assessment, early intervention, and violence prevention efforts.

Her broader interests include behavioral threat assessment, the role of emerging technologies in shaping risk pathways, and the development of trauma-informed approaches within national security and public health frameworks.  Her current project at ICSVE concerns nihilistic violent extremist movements.

 

Anne Speckhard, Ph.D., is Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and served for over 2 decades as Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine and also served as an Affiliate in the Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University.

She has interviewed over 800 terrorists, violent extremists, their family members and supporters around the world, including in Western Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia, the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East. Over the past five years, she has conducted in-depth psychological interviews with 273 ISIS defectors, returnees and prisoners, as well as 16 al Shabaab cadres (as well as family members and ideologues,) studying their trajectories into and out of terrorism, and their experiences inside ISIS and al Shabaab.

Speckhard developed the ICSVE Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Project from these interviews, which includes over 250 short counter narrative videos that mimic ISIS recruitment videos but contain actual terrorists strongly denouncing ISIS as un-Islamic, corrupt and brutal. These videos have been utilized in over 200 Facebook and Instagram campaigns globally. Beginning in 2020, she launched the ICSVE Escape Hate Counter Narrative Project, interviewing dozens of white supremacists and members of hate groups, developing counternarratives from their interviews, and creating anti-recruitment videos. She has also conducted rare interviews with five Antifa activists (Antifa protestors rarely grant interviews.)

Dr. Speckhard is also an expert in rehabilitation and repatriation of terrorists and their families. In 2007, she designed the psychological and Islamic aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000+ detainees and 800 juveniles. This work led to consulting with foreign governments on issues of terrorist prevention, interventions and repatriation; and the rehabilitation and reintegration of ISIS foreign fighters, wives and children. She has worked with NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UN Women, United Nations Countering Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED), United Nations Office of Drug and Crime (UNODC), the EU Commission and EU Parliament, and to the U.S. Senate & House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, and the FBI.

Today Dr. Speckhard actively trains key stakeholders in law enforcement, intelligence, elite hostage negotiation teams, educators, and other professionals in countering violent extremism, locally and internationally. Her focus is on the psychology of terrorism, the effective use of counter-narrative messaging materials produced by ICSVE, as well as studying the use of children as violent actors by groups such as ISIS. Her consultations and trainings include U.S., Canadian, German, British, Dutch, Austrian, Swiss, Belgian, Danish, Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian and Thai national police and security officials, among others.

Dr. Speckhard is the author of five books: Homegrown Hate, Talking to Terrorists, Bride of ISIS, Undercover Jihadi, and ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, CTV, CBC, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, Daily Beast and more. She regularly writes a column for Homeland Security Today. Her research has been published in Global Security: Health, Science and Policy, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, Journal of African Security, Journal of Strategic Security, the Journal of Human Security, Bidhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies, Journal for Deradicalization, Perspectives on Terrorism and the International Studies Journal.  Her academic publications are found at https://georgetown.academia.edu/AnneSpeckhard and www.icsve.org.