Emily Thompson
Consultant, Christchurch Call Foundation; Consultant, Simon Wiesenthal Center
2025
Emily Thompson is an expert on the exploitation of digital platforms, social media and video games by violent extremists. As an experienced researcher and program director, she works to build understanding and resilience against hateful and harmful ideologies that threaten civil society. Emily combines subject matter expertise in terrorist and violent extremist content with curriculum and program development to design effective, innovative educational programming. Over the past 12 years, she has provided critical insights for law enforcement, policy makers, social media and gaming platforms, and educators, about the threats posed by hate groups and radical ideologies. Emily was the program director for an interactive student workshop designed to introduce media literacy skills and provide tools for young people to deal with hate online that has served over 60,000 students in the USA. Emily’s current projects including designing curriculum for the Christchurch Call Foundation to educate about violent extremism and online video games and using inoculation theory to confer psychological resilience to antisemitism for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance.
The Summit was more than empty words – it made clear that a solution-driven approach is the only way to fight hate. That’s why the working group activities, which are results driven are going to be critical in defeating violent extremism. The Summit brought together the best minds in government, private sector, academia, and civil society. Being surrounded by these experts sparked new ideas – some of which I’ve already implemented or have written about.
