oxford disinformation & extremism lab

The OxDEL is a new research network for early career researchers, practitioners, and graduate students working on disinformation, extremism, and online harms. Bringing together researchers from Oxford and beyond, the OxDEL hub helps to facilitate collaboration and connection for a diverse group of experts. Our mission is to produce leading academic research, policy recommendations, training for early-career researchers, conferences and workshops, as well as an inclusive and supportive community for all lab members. On our website, we publish articles and research on emerging threats and trends within the online harms and trust & safety world. New submissions from unaffiliated researchers are welcome as long as they fit within the scope of our research. Research and articles published on OxDEL are intended to be short & succinct studies of contemporary or emerging threats. All articles are reviewed by the OxDEL team, but the views expressed belong to the authors. For more information please click the following link. While most lab members are based in Oxford or nearby, the OxDEL welcomes new members from around the world with an interest in online extremism, disinformation, and online harms (please subscribe to our email list to stay up to date. OxDEL is strongly independent and is not affiliated with any political party or governmental organisation. Some of our members have studied and worked at the two major universities in Oxford but we are entirely independent and unaffiliated with any other organisation or university. All submissions are considered carefully and as an independent organisation our editorial policy is not influenced by any other organisation or body.  The OxDEL is an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organisation which is freely accessible to all.

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The OxDEL was started in response to the scattered nature of research on online harms in Oxford, with researchers working in silos around the institutes, centres, libraries, and universities in Oxford. Researchers working on disinformation, misinformation, extremism, terrorism, algorithmic bias, machine learning, and generative AI benefit from inter-disciplinary sharing; however, the existing structures isolate researchers within their immediate communities and prevent collaboration. Researching extremism, disinformation, and online harms can also expose researchers to distressing content, especially when prolonged exposure is necessary for research purposes. Interaction with other researchers working on similar topics and who have developed best practices for dealing with distressing content can help mitigate the mental health challenges associated with research on online harms. This lack of support and community for early-career researchers and graduate students is compounded by a comparative dearth of institutional initiatives within universities to provide adequate methodological training around the collection and analysis of data on online harms. The OxDEL is our response to these issues and an attempt to build a more connected and better trained community of researchers.

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To join the network and begin receiving updates, sign up here.