New Research Paper: “ISIS Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Population of ISIS supporters on Twitter”

A new research report (full text) published by the Brookings Institution and available online (free).
From a Brookings Summary:

Although much ink has been spilled on ISIS’s activity on Twitter, very basic questions about the group’s social media strategy remain unanswered. In a new analysis paper, J.M. Berger and Jonathon Morgan answer fundamental questions about how many Twitter users support ISIS, who and where they are, and how they participate in its highly organized online activities.
Previous analyses of ISIS’s Twitter reach have relied on limited segments of the overall ISIS social network. The small, cellular nature of that network—and the focus on particular subsets within the network such as foreign fighters—may create misleading conclusions. This information vacuum extends to discussions of how the West should respond to the group’s online campaigns.
Berger and Morgan present a demographic snapshot of ISIS supporters on Twitter by analyzing a sample of 20,000 ISIS-supporting Twitter accounts. Using a sophisticated and innovative methodology, the authors map the locations, preferred languages, and the number and type of followers of these accounts.

Read the Complete Summary (Key Findings/Charts)
Direct to Full Text Research Paper:
The ISIS Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Population of Isis Supporters On Twitter
by J.M. Berger and Jonathon Morgan
68 pages; PDF.

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