Technology has transformed the way extremist groups recruit and mobilise their members. Julia Ebner, author of “Going Dark”, spent two years undercover inside radical organisations of all political hues. This week, in the wake of a far-right terrorist attack in the German town of Hanau, Anne McElvoy asks her what drives perpetrators to commit mass violence. They talk about how Julia won the trust of neo-Nazis and militant Islamists, how gamification is used to radicalise—and why she believes counter-terrorism experts need to understand their subjects better

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