Dr Julia Ebner
Polarisation, conspiracy movements and coordinated disinformation now move from fringe networks into mainstream politics, regulation and consumer behaviour within weeks. Boards and policy teams are exposed in three directions at once: platform liability, employee safety, and the political stability of the markets they operate in. Few advisers can read the underlying networks with any precision, which leaves leadership teams reacting to symptoms.
Julia Ebner is an Oxford extremism researcher and Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who helps organisations understand how online radicalisation, disinformation and polarisation translate into political, platform and reputational risk.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Julia Ebner
- Direct field intelligence on extremist movements. She has gone undercover inside a dozen networks across the ideological spectrum, which gives her a granular read on how these groups recruit, organise and migrate between platforms.
- Institutional authority on both sides of the policy conversation. She leads the Violent Extremism Lab at Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion and is Co-Executive Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the reference NGO in this field.
- A working brief with the organisations setting the rules. She has advised NATO, Europol, the World Bank, Google, Meta and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, which means she can speak to how platform governance and counter-extremism policy are actually being written.
- A track record of calling movements early. Going Mainstream (2023) traced how fringe conspiracy and extremist narratives were entering mainstream politics, an argument the subsequent two years of elections has substantively borne out.
- Two book awards from credible bodies. The Rage won the Bruno Kreisky Award for Political Book of the Year 2018; Going Dark won Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020 and was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award.
Biography highlights
- Co-Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
- Leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion.
- Postdoctoral Researcher at the Calleva Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, Oxford.
- Former Special Advisor on Terrorism Prevention to the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.
- Author of Going Mainstream (2023), Going Dark (2019) and The Rage (2017); winner of the Bruno Kreisky Prize and Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres.
- Regular contributor to The Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Washington Post and Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Biography
Most extremist movements look marginal until the moment they are not. By the time a conspiracy theory reaches a regulator, an election or a consumer boycott, the network behind it has been organising for years. Julia Ebner studies that interval. Her work explains how fringe ideas move from encrypted channels into mainstream politics, and what that movement means for governments, platforms and large employers.
For Going Dark, her 2019 book, she spent two years undercover inside a dozen extremist groups, adopting five different identities to access neo-Nazi networks, jihadist recruiters, trad-wife communities and the alt-right channels that planned the Charlottesville rally. The book won Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020 and the Dr Caspar Einem prize, and was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award. Her follow-up, Going Mainstream (Ithaka Press, 2023), traced how those same networks were already shaping electoral and policy outcomes.
That field work is anchored in serious institutional positions. She leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, sits as a postdoctoral researcher at Magdalen College’s Calleva Centre, and is Co-Executive Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London. She has advised NATO, Europol, the World Bank, Google and Meta, and served as Special Advisor on Terrorism Prevention to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism.
For corporate audiences, the value of that combination is concrete. She can tell a board which narratives are about to hit them, why the networks behind those narratives behave the way they do, and what platform governance, employee safety and political-risk teams should actually be doing about it.
Key speaking topics
- Online radicalisation and extremist networks
- Disinformation, conspiracy movements and democratic risk
- AI-enabled influence operations
- Platform governance and trust and safety
- Polarisation as a political and corporate risk
- Counter-extremism policy and terrorism prevention
Ideal for
- Boards and risk committees assessing political-violence and reputational exposure
- Chief Trust and Safety, Policy and Public Affairs leads at technology platforms
- Government, defence and intelligence audiences working on counter-extremism and election integrity
- CHRO and Communications leadership teams facing polarisation inside the workforce or the customer base
Audience outcomes
- A working picture of how extremist and conspiracy networks recruit, organise and migrate across platforms
- The early-warning signals that distinguish a fringe movement from one about to enter the mainstream
- A clearer view of how AI-generated content is changing the economics of disinformation
- A frame for translating online radicalisation into board-level political, regulatory and reputational risk
- Reference points from her undercover work and from ISD and Oxford research that audiences can take into their own planning
Talks
How coordinated disinformation erodes trust in institutions, brands and elections, and what leaders can actually do about it.
Key takeaways:
- The mechanics by which conspiracy narratives travel from fringe channels to mainstream audiences
- Where institutional trust is most exposed, and where it can be rebuilt
- Practical responses for communications, policy and platform teams
What generative AI changes about the cost, scale and personalisation of influence operations.
Key takeaways:
- How extremist and state-aligned actors are already using generative tools
- The platform, regulatory and corporate response gap
- What boards should be asking their security, trust and policy teams
Field intelligence from two years undercover inside a dozen extremist networks across the ideological spectrum.
Key takeaways:
- How recruitment and radicalisation actually work inside these networks
- The cross-ideological patterns that connect movements that look unrelated
- Implications for platform governance, employee safety and political risk
How fringe extremist and conspiracy movements have moved into mainstream politics and culture, and what that means for organisations.
Key takeaways:
- The pathways by which extremist narratives enter mainstream institutions
- The corporate and political consequences of advanced polarisation
- Where leaders can intervene, and where they cannot
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |