The Last Twitter Census
January 23, 2024
This report compares two large random samples of Twitter accounts that tweet in English: one taken just before Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, and one taken three months later, in January 2023. It also examines several related datasets collected during the period following the acquisition, a period in which, the study found, new ...
Escape Routes: How far-right actors circumvent the Network Enforcement Act
September 18, 2023
For this study, the online milieu of radical right-wing and extreme right-wing actors was investigated with regard to linking to alternative platforms. The aim of the analysis was to make the cosmos of online platforms used by right-wing extremist and radical right-wing actors accessible to readers and researchers. As established social media such as Facebook, ...
Discussing the Islamic State on Twitter
September 18, 2023
This book explores how ordinary Arab-speaking social media users have reacted to propaganda from the Islamic State, rather than how IS propaganda has targeted ordinary users, thus providing a change in perspective in the literature. The authors provide a comprehensive account of the evolution of the Arabic discourse on IS, encompassing all phases of the ...
Jihadismo na rede: o papel da comunicação em rede na lógica de desenvolvimento do processo de radicalização jihadista (Jihadism on the Network: the role of Network Communication on jihadi radicalization processes)
September 18, 2023
The jihadi movement paradigm, along with jihadi terrorism, has been transformed over the last decade into a new reality, since it entered our daily lives with the 9/11 attacks. This process of change was due largely to the strengthening of the caliphate movement, carried out by the Islamic State. It is no longer possible to ...
From solidarity to blame game: A computational approach to comparing far-right and general public Twitter discourse in the aftermath of the Hanau terror attack
September 18, 2023
Terror attacks are followed by public shock and disorientation. Previous research has found that people use social media to collectively negotiate responses, interpretations, and sense-making in the aftermath of terror attacks. However, the role of ideologically motivated discussions and their relevance to the overall discourse have not been studied. This paper ad-dresses this gap and ...
An actor-based approach to understanding radical right viral tweets in the UK
September 18, 2023
Radical right actors routinely use social media to spread highly divisive, disruptive, and anti-democratic messages. Assessing and countering such content is crucial for ensuring that online spaces can be open, accessible, and constructive. However, previous work has paid little attention to understanding factors associated with radical right content that goes viral. We investigate this issue ...
A semi-supervised algorithm for detecting extremism propaganda diffusion on social media
September 18, 2023
Extremist online networks reportedly tend to use Twitter and other Social Networking Sites (SNS) in order to issue propaganda and recruitment statements. Traditional machine learning models may encounter problems when used in such a context, due to the peculiarities of microblogging sites and the manner in which these networks interact (both between themselves and with ...
From Traits to Threats – Identification of Personality Traits for Individuals at Risk of Radicalisation on Social Media
September 18, 2023
This Thesis contributes by proposing a method for identifying users believed to be at risk of radicalisation on social media, by utilising the social media networks of already radicalised individuals and a set of indicators derived from related work on radicalisation. In addition, this Thesis provides a new to the field, in-depth analysis of the ...
The Enemy of My Enemy Is Not My Friend: Arabic Twitter Sentiment toward ISIS and the United States
September 18, 2023
A counter-intuitive finding emerges from an analysis of Arabic Twitter posts from 2014 to 2015: Twitter participants who are negative toward the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) are also more likely to hold negative views of the United States. This surprising correlation is due to the interpretations of two sets of users. ...