Examining the Online Networks of Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremist Organizations on Telegram

• In Event: Analyzing Extremist Communications and Narratives

Abstract

There is an ongoing need for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to examine online communities that are known to facilitate violent racially and ethnically motivated extremism and terrorism, but little is empirically known about the dynamics of inter- and intraorganizational interaction between racially and ethnically motivated extremist organizations within these spaces. This study applied social network analysis to a large sample of posts from Telegram channels associated with White nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations to understand whether various channel characteristics and measures of channel proximity predict interaction between channels. The findings may assist researchers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies in understanding online collaboration by White nationalist and neo-Nazi content curators both within and across organizational boundaries.

Authors

• Sydney Litterer, Michigan State University

• Marie Ouellet, Simon Fraser University

• Ryan Scrivens, Michigan State University

• Steven Chermak, Michigan State University