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VOX-Pol Blog post.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), like no other terrorist organization before, has used Twitter and other social media channels to broadcast its message, inspire followers, and recruit new fighters. Though much less heralded, ISIS opponents have also taken to Twitter to castigate the ISIS message. This report draws on publicly available Twitter data to examine this ongoing debate about ISIS on Arabic Twitter and to better understand the networks of ISIS supporters and opponents on Twitter. To support the countermessaging effort and to more deeply understand ISIS supporters and opponents, this study uses a mixed-methods analytic approach to identify and characterize in detail both ISIS support and opposition networks on Twitter. This analytic approach draws on community detection algorithms that help detect interactive communities of Twitter users, lexical analysis that can identify key themes and content for large data sets, and social network analysis.

The article describes the research network “Analysis of extremist aspirations in social networks (X-SONAR)” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The network investigates extremist interaction and escalation dynamics in social online networks and their relevance for criminally relevant radicalization processes, such as in the planning and execution of extremist acts of violence. Among other things, the aim is to derive a model for risk assessment and prevention and to develop a demonstrator for a software-based tool that can be used by end-users from security agencies and civil society for on-demand monitoring of extremist agitation in virtual contexts.

Until today there have been no women in the core leadership of Al Qaeda (Al Qaeda al Sulba). While the organization is frequently described as patriarchal and exclusive of women, women are among its most fervent supporters. A significant recent development in women’s participation in violent extremism has been the dissemination of radical ideologies online as recruiters and propagandists. In particular, online female recruiters shame men to enlist in jihad by demanding that they protect their sisters in Islam from sexual trespass, particularly by male non-believers. In addition to propagandists, a new generation of jihadi leaders is looking to women to ensure the survival of the organization by devising new religious justifications that would allow women to participate in violent jihadist activities. An ideological schism over women’s participation in jihad reflects a generational shift within the movement as well as differences between the core of Al Qaeda and its regional affiliates globally.

Until today there have been no women in the core leadership of Al Qaeda (Al Qaeda al
Sulba). While the organization is frequently described as patriarchal and exclusive of
women, women are among its most fervent supporters. A significant recent development
in women’s participation in violent extremism has been the dissemination of radical
ideologies online as recruiters and propagandists. In particular, online female recruiters
shame men to enlist in jihad by demanding that they protect their sisters in Islam from
sexual trespass, particularly by male non-believers. In addition to propagandists, a new
generation of jihadi leaders is looking to women to ensure the survival of the
organization by devising new religious justifications that would allow women to
participate in violent jihadist activities. An ideological schism over women’s
participation in jihad reflects a generational shift within the movement as well as
differences between the core of Al Qaeda and its regional affiliates globally.

The right-wing Swedish Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) is increasingly active on social media. Using discursive psychology, this text explores the rhetorical organization of text and rhetorical resources used on the Swedish online forum Flashback. The aim is to reveal and problematize truth claims about NRM made by antagonists and protagonists. Questions are (1) how and what do NRM antagonists and protagonists convey in Flashback posts about NRM, and its ideology and members? (2) how do NRM antagonists and protagonists make truth claims about NRM in Flashback posts? The empirical material consisting of 1546 Flashback posts analyzed to identify typical discussions on “NMR’s true nature”; accomplished social actions stemming from the posts. Findings show that the Flashback thread can be understood as being a rhetorical battle that concerns the “truth” about NRM, where a variety of rhetorical resources are used to render statements credibility and those involved legitimacy.