#ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives
The rapid expansion of cyberspace has greatly facilitated the strategic shift of traditional crimes to on- line platforms. This has included malicious actors, such as extremist organisations, making use of online networks to disseminate propaganda and incite violence through rad- icalising individua...
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Format: | Conference item |
Language: | English |
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IEEE
2020
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author | Zahrah, F Nurse, JRC Goldsmith, M |
author_facet | Zahrah, F Nurse, JRC Goldsmith, M |
author_sort | Zahrah, F |
collection | OXFORD |
description | The rapid expansion of cyberspace has greatly facilitated the strategic shift of traditional crimes to on- line platforms. This has included malicious actors, such as extremist organisations, making use of online networks to disseminate propaganda and incite violence through rad- icalising individuals. In this article, we seek to advance current research by exploring how supporters of extremist organisations craft and disseminate their content, and how posts from counter-extremism agencies compare to them. In particular, this study will apply computational tech- niques to analyse the narratives of various pro-extremist and counter-extremist Twitter accounts, and investigate how the psychological motivation behind the messages compares between pro-ISIS and counter-extremism narratives. Our findings show that pro-extremist accounts often use differ- ent strategies to disseminate content (such as the types of hashtags used) when compared to counter-extremist accounts across different types of organisations, including accounts of governments and NGOs. Through this study, we provide unique insights into both extremist and counter-extremist narratives on social media platforms. Furthermore, we define several avenues for discussion regarding the extent to which counter-messaging may be effective at diminishing the online influence of extremist and other criminal organisations. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:58:33Z |
format | Conference item |
id | oxford-uuid:c3b6446f-f5e9-48dd-aa75-081b77902cc9 |
institution | University of Oxford |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:58:33Z |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | IEEE |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:c3b6446f-f5e9-48dd-aa75-081b77902cc92022-03-27T06:18:31Z#ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narrativesConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:c3b6446f-f5e9-48dd-aa75-081b77902cc9EnglishSymplectic ElementsIEEE2020Zahrah, FNurse, JRCGoldsmith, MThe rapid expansion of cyberspace has greatly facilitated the strategic shift of traditional crimes to on- line platforms. This has included malicious actors, such as extremist organisations, making use of online networks to disseminate propaganda and incite violence through rad- icalising individuals. In this article, we seek to advance current research by exploring how supporters of extremist organisations craft and disseminate their content, and how posts from counter-extremism agencies compare to them. In particular, this study will apply computational tech- niques to analyse the narratives of various pro-extremist and counter-extremist Twitter accounts, and investigate how the psychological motivation behind the messages compares between pro-ISIS and counter-extremism narratives. Our findings show that pro-extremist accounts often use differ- ent strategies to disseminate content (such as the types of hashtags used) when compared to counter-extremist accounts across different types of organisations, including accounts of governments and NGOs. Through this study, we provide unique insights into both extremist and counter-extremist narratives on social media platforms. Furthermore, we define several avenues for discussion regarding the extent to which counter-messaging may be effective at diminishing the online influence of extremist and other criminal organisations. |
spellingShingle | Zahrah, F Nurse, JRC Goldsmith, M #ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives |
title | #ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives |
title_full | #ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives |
title_fullStr | #ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives |
title_full_unstemmed | #ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives |
title_short | #ISIS vs #ActionCountersTerrorism: a computational analysis of extremist and counter-extremist Twitter narratives |
title_sort | isis vs actioncountersterrorism a computational analysis of extremist and counter extremist twitter narratives |
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