Institute for Strategic Dialogue
@ISDglobal
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ISD is a fiercely independent global organisation dedicated to powering solutions to extremism, hate and disinformation.
London, England
Joined December 2010
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Sex sells. It also sells propaganda. ISD has unearthed a network of pro-Kremlin Twitter accounts using stolen photos of conventionally attractive influencers to push pro-Kremlin propaganda in the Middle East and Africa.
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ISD is committed to covering the Russia/Ukraine conflict across our areas of expertise.
All of our resources for understanding the conflict and its context can be found on this page, which will be updated regularly.
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When attempting to justify hate against queer people, the media, politicians & conspiracists are increasingly incorporating the term ‘groomer’ into their vocabulary. The mainstreaming of this slur is actively contributing to violence & moral panic.
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What the ‘Vladimirror Network’ highlights is the strength of micro-networks, small bands of loosely connected accounts, working to spread pro-Putin content, and succeeding in evading moderation and detection.
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For over a year, ISD researchers delved into the little known or understood Salafi community of “Islamogram.” What they found was a fundamental shift in Gen-Z Salafi activism, where the aesthetics & tropes of the alt-right are fueling a convergence unlike we’ve seen before. 🧵
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A new ISD investigation exposes the full extent of a pro-Kremlin influence operation spanning social media pages, cloned websites and fake videos. Read our full report, out now.
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Speaking on claims Twitter has become a safer space to hate, Elon Musk says “this is not a right-wing takeover, but a centrist takeover”.
ISD analysis found that Musk’s own interactions with right-wing accounts increased over 1600% after he took control.
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A lack of reinforcement of community guidelines such as the ban on the use of duplicate accounts, highlight that moderation is still sorely lacking. The
#IstandwithRussia
campaign only reinforces previous findings.
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But Gettr’s user follower numbers don’t make sense. It seems Gettr inflates followers by combining them with Twitter data – they’ve since disaggregated ‘Gettr followers’ but inconsistencies remain.
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Analysing data from 7M followers of 132 accounts known to spread abusive & misogynistic content, we found a 69% increase in the number of newly created accounts following these channels following Musk’s takeover
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On Discord, researchers found a small, tight-knit community of Islamogram influencers and their followers across 6 servers. These 6servers had a collective membership of 4,478. There young Salafis derided George Floyd, sided with Adolf Hitler, and shared bomb-making material. 10/
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In 2022, the profile encouraged users to use the hashtag once again “so that when situations like this” happen they can connect in support of Russia. It has since been given new life, & was used by as many as 9,907 Twitter accounts and shared 9,900 times in pro-Kremlin FB groups.
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More people than ever get their news from social media. ISD analysed what users see when they search for news about Ukraine on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In many cases, the answer is pro-Kremlin accounts and unverified sources.
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‘Climate lockdown’ is a new type of disinformation that aims to drive fear about future ‘green tyranny’ – it claims gvmt overreach will be enacted under the pretext of climate change to strip people of civil liberties, using language explicitly related to the pandemic (1/12)
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At the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the
#IStandWithRussia
began to go viral, giving a false sense of pro-Kremlin support. ISD investigated the origins and found a profile that appears to have created the campaign years before the war even began.
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Webinar alert 🚨
@KevinDReyes
and
@jordanwildon
will be speaking this Thursday on ISD's research & analysis methods following the EU's ban of Russian state-media outlets last year. Hint: we used Maltego, a comprehensive tool for graphical link analyses.
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Meta has been diligent in removing Russian state-controlled media accounts, but "thousands" of inauthentic profiles have been busy at work pushing pro-Kremlin views about Ukraine.
@timsquirrell
comments on Meta's adversarial threat report to
@SkyNews
.
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US accelerationists’ support for Hamas is not rooted in shared religious/cultural beliefs, but in their common opposition to Jews & the West. ISD analyzes how the Israel-Hamas conflict has been deconstructed as a radicalization/recruitment opportunity 👇
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@CRISconsortium
Our research found that far-left online activity doesn’t promote violence as a core strategy, with far-right calls for violence against opponents and minorities seen in far greater numbers.
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While we welcome assessment of hate speech prevalence, we are concerned that
@twittersafety
’s latest analysis is not methodologically robust. Combined with Twitter’s refusal to engage with third-party scrutiny, this appears to amount to a whitewash.
We recently partnered with
@Sprinklr
for an independent assessment of hate speech on Twitter, which we’ve been sharing data on publicly for several months.
Sprinklr’s AI-powered model found that the reach of hate speech on Twitter is even lower than our own model quantified 🧵
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It's back to school season and ISD is looking for teens 13-18 yrs old to help us evaluate YouTube’s REFRAME Series by watching 10 vids/answering a few questions.
Sound easy enough? Earn a £50 gift voucher for the trouble.
Hurry! Signups closing soon 👇
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Today at
#BonnClimateConference
, we release our landmark report analysing climate mis- and disinformation at
#COP26
and beyond, and the repercussions denial and delayism are having on climate action around the world.
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What is a 'Reichsbürger'?
In light of today's arrests of coup plotters in Germany,
@JakobGuhl
of
@ISDglobal
has written an explainer of the movement, their beliefs, and how they overlap with QAnon and other conspiracies/extremists.
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Today we are proud to announce the official launch of Beam, our counter-disinformation capability developed in collaboration with CASM Technology.
Read on to find out more, or check out our new website:
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Extremist content on TikTok has surged since the Mar-a-Lago search. "If they don't do more to address calls for violence on their platform, and quickly, we can be in a very scary place in just a few months time", says
@KatKeneally
. Full NPR segment here:
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Our researchers set out to investigate whether YouTube recommends more politically extreme content. Instead, they found something just as disturbing. Read our latest Dispatch on YouTube’s amplification of misogyny.
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In “Hatescape: An In-Depth Analysis of Extremism and Hate Speech on TikTok,” we take a look at how TikTok is used to promote hatred and glorify extremism and terrorism. (1/6)
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All our publications, including ISD's pioneering research into extremism and disinformation, as well as our educational resources on online safety and digital citizenship are available as free downloads in our Publications section.
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Since acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk has been criticized for interacting with right-wing users such as Libs of TikTok. In today's Dispatch, ISD finds this criticism isn't unfounded: Musk's engagement with such users increased by 1,690% since becoming CEO.
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They are as much influenced by these dynamics as they are by how the internet has morphed and shifted, becoming an increasingly rabid place inhabited by conspiracists, fascists and fringe ideologues and ideologies. 4/
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ISD researchers
@Aoifegall
,
@jacob_p_davey
and
@Mackenziebhart
have released a report on key trends in QAnon activity. Increased engagement points to QAnon's potential to act as a serious vehicle of disinformation leading up to the US elections.
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ISD traced the reach of 32 fringe climate-sceptic websites on Twitter by following their domains in multiple languages. We found thousands of mentions, often by ‘repeat offenders’, attempting to amplify anti-climate narratives to the public.
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ISD has found a massive rise in discourse mentioning 'groomers' and 'pedophiles' in the wake of the Colorado Springs shooting.
This comes alongside influencers continuing to post about 'groomers', and neo-Nazi groups celebrating the shooter.
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Today, ISD and
@caadcoalition
launched a new flagship report on disinformation and the climate crisis, unpacking the narratives and tactics that emerged around the COP27 summit in Nov. 🌍🔥🚨
A🧵of key findings, and what we can do in response, below.
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Since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, antisemitism on the platform has almost doubled.
Read the most comprehensive analysis of antisemitism on Twitter, out now from ISD and CASM Technology.
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Thousands of young Salafis, spanning a nebulous ideological spectrum are spread across social media and gaming platforms. While most of their narratives are innocuous, it is clear they are waging a culture war where their most ardent allies are the alt-right. 2/
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ISD’s research on hate speech and extremism on Twitter was referenced in
@JamesClayton5
’s interview with
@ElonMusk
. A thread on our findings and others'🧵
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Today, ISD published ‘Uisce Faoi Thalamh: An Investigation into the Online Mis- and Disinformation Ecosystem in Ireland,’ a landscape study of the online ecosystem where mis/disinformation & conspiracy theories thrive in Ireland.
Supported by
@EMIF_Fund
.
Read on for more info 🧵
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In today’s Dispatch
@elisethoma5
looks at how Russian state media content, shared widely online, is having a profound impact on members of Western conspiracy theory communities who now believe false narratives, like Ukraine being ruled by ‘Nazis’.
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We are proud to have contributed research to this investigation into Twitter’s decline under Elon Musk, highlighting especially the extent of misogynist hate now on the platform.
EXCL: Twitter insiders have told me and BBC Panorama it’s no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child exploitation. Exclusive data and Twitter users’ testimony suggests hate & trolls are thriving. BBC One, 8PM.
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Analysing both far-right and far-left Twitter networks, we found that while both sides use oppositional narratives to further their cause, the far right is alone in frequently engaging in hateful and divisive activity online. (2/5)
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Today we're excited to launch our new Explainer section on the ISD website. With generous support from
@Microsoft
, we're making available brief guides to key concepts in extremism, hate, and disinformation. Check them out 👇
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Over the course of 8 days on Twitter monkeypox went from a topic of public health concern to the subject of far-right disinformation. Today’s Dispatch explores how Twitter facilitated the spread of ‘groomer’ narratives & failed to stop anti-LGBTQ+ hatred.
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TikTok isn't taken sufficiently seriously as a platform, including when it comes to mis- and disinformation. This BBC article is a great starting place to understand how the war in Ukraine is giving rise to a flood of false videos.
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Read the full Islamogram report, as well as the rest of our Gen Z and Digital Salafism series, here:
/Thread
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Coming of age during the height of the Global War on Terror, they are fully aware of being a community under attack, continually surveilled and fighting for clear identities. Gen-Z Salafis have found that in the well-trodden culture wars fought by the alt-right. 3/
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This Politico article on Islamic State exploitation of GETTR is based on our research into terrorist groups and their supporters online. This is just the latest attempt by these groups to gain a foothold on large, small and niche platforms. Thread (1/6)
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By changing Twitter's moderation policies, Elon Musk has given ISIS a path back onto the platform. Check out our analysis by
@MoustafaAyad
on the extremist group's new reach on Twitter.
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📰Today ISD launches its Gaming and Extremism series. Over the next four weeks, we'll publish reports exploring the role online gaming plays in the strategy of far-right extremists. Thread (1/4)
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An emerging community in the US consisting of armed left-wing activists and antifascists has grown on Instagram since 2020. We explore the dynamics of this community in today's Digital Dispatches:
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ISD are pleased to have contributed research to tonight’s BBC Panorama investigation on the impacts of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter on abuse and harassment on the platform
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The Buffalo shooter has no known connections to Ukraine’s Azov Battalion. That hasn’t stopped some groups from across the political spectrum claiming that he does.
ISD explores who is doing this and what they hope to achieve.
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The latest analysis and action from the forefront of the fight against extremism, hate and disinformation, straight to your inbox twice a month.
Sign up for ISD Insights here:
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So what does it mean? The contours of the Salafi ecosystem online are shifting, with young Salafis becoming “ideologically elastic,” drawing on noxious tropes and imagery of the alt-right while ultimately grounding themselves in Salafi mores. It's a worrying future. 12/
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We've just published the next country study in our series of reports on global anti-lockdown movements, this time looking at the Irish context. Check out our analysis of the actors, narratives, and harmful activities of the hybrid threat landscape in 🇮🇪
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Our US team has been watching online spaces popular with extremists and election denialists this year. Here they outline eight trends they observed during primary elections that they expect to continue, or even escalate, as 2022 Election Day approaches. 🇺🇸
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We are honoured to share that ISD has been selected for the
@RTyouthpower
's inaugural cohort. With their support, we will work to empower young people to push back against online extremism & radicalization. Watch this space for updates & learn more here.
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We’re hiring! ISD currently has 6 open vacancies across our UK 🇬🇧, US 🇺🇸 and German 🇩🇪 offices, ranging from analysts to operational personnel.
If you want to make a difference by working against extremism, hate and disinformation, apply now:
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The frontlines of this battle are on FB, Instagram, Reddit, Discord & Telegram. Islamogram influencers on Instagram had a collective follower base of 162,338. In 1 year, the top 30 have received 2.2 million views of their memes and edit videos, growing their following by 20% 6/
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In a statement today,
@TwitterSafety
defended Twitter’s recent record on antisemitism in the face of multiple reports evidencing a rise in antisemitism on the platform by claiming antisemitic slurs have decreased on Twitter since its acquisition.
This article is extremely misleading.
The purportedly "landmark" lawsuit concerns six Tweets, and all of those tweets were actioned, and here's exactly how:
— Each of the six Tweets were reported on Twitter, focusing on our terms of service for violations.
— Twitter's
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On Reddit, 3 spaces affiliated with Islamogram influencers had a collective subscriber base of 7,203. The largest of these was dedicated to promoting pan-Islamism, expressing support for Hamas and the Taliban, as well as the Chechnyan and Bosnian jihads. 8/
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In collaboration with
@ausreset
, ISD explored algorithmic recommendations on YouTube & YouTube Shorts to boys and young men.
10 accounts we set up were all recommended misogynistic, anti-feminist and 'Manosphere' content by YouTube within hours.
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In our latest Russia/Ukraine Dispatch, Dr Jeremy Reffin &
@carljackmiller
explore a pro-Kremlin information operation, featuring fake identities, real voices, automated amplification & precise messaging. They anatomise it by stages 🧵
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Far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour’s campaign team appears to have used coordinated inauthentic behaviour to astroturf support & influence voters ahead of the 2022 elections.
This and more from the latest ISD France 🇫🇷 investigation, out now.
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Right-wing extremist communities on Telegram have enormously amplified COVID conspiracy content. Our new report by
@ciaranoconnor
maps their influence, including linking two admins of a channel to prominent members of the US far-right.
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@elisethoma5
This week when the Russian govt claimed to have ‘proof’ that the US had been developing biological weapons in Ukraine, within hours this ‘proof’ was shared in Western COVID-19 conspiracy & anti-vaxx groups on Telegram by RT channels, as well as a high profile QAnon influencer.
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They fight what can only be defined as “isms,” liberalism, both within the Muslim community, as well as in the West. Their battle is an existential crisis of identity, one that must be won at all costs. Even if it means appropriating the narratives of “enemies.” 5/
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New report out now:
Layers of Lies: A First Look at Irish Far-Right Activity on Telegram, from
@aoifegall
and
@ciaranoconnor
. This report was produced in conjunction with
@thejournal_ie
and its
@Noteworthy_ie
platform. (1/3)
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ISD identified 10 Twitter accounts with a combined 359,075 followers spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation in Arabic about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Male audiences in the MENA region are engaging enthusiastically with heart and rose emojis.
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The German pro-democracy movement that has been protesting far-right extremism is facing backlash. ISD's Solveig Barth,
@MSeibriger
& Paula Matlach identify the 7 tactics being used by the German far right to delegitimise the movement 👇
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Today we launch a new series of reports on the global anti-lockdown movement, beginning with this paper examining how COVID restrictions have brought together a broad church of activists in a conspiracy-extremist movement we call a 'hybrid threat'.
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Since the Russian invasion began, we've monitored what appears to be a longstanding astroturfing campaign for Vladimir Putin, involving duplicate accounts posting 1000s of fawning images in numerous languages worldwide. This report details our findings.
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A pro-CCP network known as 'Spamouflage' is experimenting with new tactics to increase its influence, including using accounts to pose as right-wing Americans & exploit domestic divisions. ISD's
@elisethoma5
identifies the two main tactics being used ⬇️
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Four years ago today, a terrorist killed 51 people and devastated the lives of many others in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Today we remember those lost to this and other attacks since, inspired by extreme right-wing ideology and fuelled by hate.
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A video shared by a Russian UN diplomat & a German politician shows Western arms meant for Ukraine being sold on the black market.
But the video is fake.
In a new investigation, ISD traces it back to ‘Journalisten Friekorps’, a spoof news outlet.
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🇷🇺 Russian state media's Resistor Newswire hasn't gained much traction online despite 18+ months of operation. It’s just the latest spin-off outlet to be uncovered by ISD. What does this tell us about Russian influence operation tactics? 🧵 below.
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ISD has uncovered disinformation campaigns active in EU election campaigns in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland. See what we found in the interim briefing, published today:
#disinformation
#EuropeanElection2019
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Analysing levels of online misogyny and abuse is a challenge, but our findings suggest Musk’s takeover of Twitter created the perception of a permissive environment for the creation of thousands of new accounts that immediately followed harmful channels
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‘Gore’ sites are known to host violent content for so-called ‘gore seekers.’ A new ISD report by analysts at Human Digital, reveals that these sites serve a secondary audience: extremist groups, looking to view, download & share terrorist material.
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The most obviously fake account is Maria Raskolniov, whose bio reads: “Arab press department of the Russian sputnik_ar Agency”, with a profile picture of a conventionally attractive woman. The photo is of Instagram influencer Dzana Dzzyzzle.
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Far-right activity focused on hostile discussion of marginalised communities, especially trans people, as well as intl politics involving the U.S. and China. Far-left narratives focused on economic and social justice, including workers’ rights and institutional racism. (3/5)
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ISD tracked the emergence and spread of the ‘climate lockdown’ narrative, showing how poorly worded headlines from mainstream media were weaponised by right-wing outlets to warn of impending authoritarian doom. Read about it in our new report. (2/12)
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A new ISD dispatch by
@iamisabellew
&
@MoustafaAyad
reveals that content glorifying mass casualty shooters is readily accessible to minors across TikTok, Discord, Roblox, Telegram and X.
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ISD’s latest research on Australian Twitter explores how the far right and far left interact online, and how this can fuel their confrontations in the physical world. (1/5)
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As details emerge of the atrocities and devastation created by Russian troops in their one-month occupation of Bucha in Kyiv, today’s Dispatch dissects the disinformation campaign the Kremlin have launched in parallel - deploying their usual bag of tricks.
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"The analysis of the social media content found the mobilization and radicalization strategies of the two groups were similar, but anti-Muslim contributions by comparison were "more radical and more widespread.""
@dwnews
@DeutscheWelle
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Today we published a new toolkit to help intervention providers engage more confidently with women and girls affiliated with ISIS, building on existing research ISD has conducted into foreign fighters and the role of women in the movements. 🧵
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@JamesClayton5
@elonmusk
Musk asked the BBC to provide examples of hate speech on Twitter. Perhaps one way of demonstrating why the problem is perceived to have worsened is the presence of ‘verified’ accounts which are explicitly white supremacist.
Twitter has given Blue subscription coupled with full algorithm promotion to a follower of US far-right figure Nick Fuentes who has the N-word in his handle. Even he couldn't believe it.
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Today we’re releasing “The Cloud Caliphate”, a joint report by ISD and
@CTCWP
, offering a preliminary analysis of one of the largest known online repositories of Islamic State materials.
Check it out here:
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On FB, researchers found 21 central pages & groups with a collective following of 88,596. 6 pages & groups, representing 22% of the overall following, were engaged in explicitly Salafi-jihadist meme production, mostly in Arabic and supportive of IS and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham 7/
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Project Nemesis is a pro-Kremlin doxxing operation that has materialised online and in the media during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. ISD has investigated how doxxing, as an emerging form of information warfare, is being weaponised in Ukraine.
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Researchers found 22 Islamogram channels on Telegram, with a collective following of 24,709, connected to or promoted by Islamogram influencers on Instagram. ~50% of these shared memes & edit videos in support of groups such as Hamas, the Taliban, HTS and, in some cases, IS. 9/
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Terms like 'military-aged men' & 'unvetted' are frequently used in Ireland to frame immigrants as an 'invading force' that will replace locals, a clear reference to the far-right 'Great Replacement', write
@ciaranoconnor
and
@aoifegall
for the
@IrishTimes
.
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As farmers protest across Europe, ISD examines the situation in Germany, focusing on connections btwn organisers & far-right networks/narratives to identify risks to participants who may be unknowingly influenced or mobilised by far-right ideology.
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ISD has found that RT is circumventing EU bans, with content that discriminates against Ukrainian refugees circulating on a number of websites, reaching European audiences in a variety of languages. Read our report 👇
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After Hamas' Oct 7 attack, there's been a surge in comparisons btwn Hamas & ISIS, including by Israeli PM Netanyahu. In this Dispatch, we explore the differences between the proscribed terrorist groups, and how their tactics & ideological aims are at odds.
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Instead of far-right content, every single account was recommended misogynist content both on the main platform and even more aggressively through the new ‘YouTube Shorts’ feature, regardless of what they were searching.
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Our data also showed major spikes in account creation correlated with key events related to (i) Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and (ii) the return to Twitter, and later, the arrest of Andrew Tate.
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“The Russian Journalist” is another seemingly attractive woman with 88,300 followers, who claims to be a war correspondent, posting exclusively in Arabic. The account was created in March 2022, along with 5 others created from Feb to April this year.
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