The Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents (READ) is a restricted-access digital library of primary-source material produced, published, or shared by far-right and other extremist actors. Hosted within the Centre for Statecraft and National Security at King’s College London with the support of GIFCT, READ was created to address a persistent problem for researchers working in this area: the material required to study extremist movements is often difficult to locate, inconsistently archived, or inaccessible for legitimate safety and legal reasons.
Since 2023, READ has provided verified access to this material for researchers, academics, journalists, law enforcement, trust and safety teams, and others with a legitimate reason for access. The project is based on a model of qualified access: making sensitive material available for research and professional use without placing it back into unrestricted public circulation.
In March 2026, READ launched a new platform designed to significantly expand both the size of the repository and what users can do with it. Hosted using DSpace, a professional digital repository software used by universities and other archival institutions, the new site launched with more than 1,000 additional documents. READ now contains around 2,400 documents, spanning material published from the late nineteenth century through to the present day – and continues to grow as we work through our backlog.
A significant change for users has been in how that material can be explored. Documents are categorized using more than two dozen subject tags, covering both ideological currents and broader themes, which can be combined with metadata including author, date, and document type. More than 90% of the collection has also been OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scanned, allowing users to search for particular words and phrases across the repository rather than relying only on titles or metadata.
READ is composed of materials categorized into four main categories: Far right/Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism (IMVE), Manifestos, Nazi material, and Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) materials. The collection has continued to develop since the March launch, reflecting both increased demand from researchers and practitioners and the growing amount of relevant material encountered through READ’s own monitoring. We have also continued to upload documents associated with recent attacks as they emerge publicly, alongside work to process a larger backlog of historical and contemporary material. Our active monitoring has allowed us to contribute to Insights published through the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), including on the 2025 Moscow and 2026 Montreal attacks.
We have also expanded the contextual resources available alongside the document collection as part of our partnership with GIFCT. READ currently hosts annotated manifestos, exclusive to GIFCT members, the majority of which relate to Incident Response Framework activations. These annotations identify ideological themes, terminology, cultural references, and other contextual information intended to help practitioners understand the material and the communities from which it emerges.
Through READ’s integration with Compass, GIFCT’s member portal, relevant resources can also be accessed by GIFCT member companies. The uptake of the new platform has reinforced the demand for this kind of resource, as the repository continues to attract interest from researchers, regulators, industry, and law enforcement, demonstrating the range of sectors that face similar problems around accessing extremist primary-source material.
These evolutions were also central to READ’s contribution to the 2026 GNET Conference, where Project Manager Harrison Pates joined a panel on transparency, data access, and the future of extremism research. The discussion reflected one of the central tensions behind READ: restricting sensitive material can be necessary, but excessive restrictions can also create research silos and prevent useful information from moving between academics, industry, regulators, and law enforcement.
There is no single solution to that problem. READ’s approach has instead been to develop a practical middle ground through verified access, appropriate redaction, and collaboration across sectors. For example, material containing instructional content that could materially support an attack or other crime can be redacted while preserving the ideological and political material researchers need to study. These materials are still available to law enforcement upon request.
The repository will continue to change as the movements it documents change. New material is continually emerging, existing collections still need to be processed, and harm types such as NVE demonstrate why any archive of extremism needs to be able to adapt.
What has remained consistent is the basic purpose of READ: making important primary-source material easier to find, research, and understand, while creating the safeguards needed to provide that access responsibly.
To apply for an account on READ with an institutional email address, fill out this form.
