The most popular theme among white nationalists on Twitter was the concept of “white genocide,” the notion that the “white race” is directly endangered by the increasing diversity of society, indicates the extensive study. Tazeen Hasan highlights the significant aspects of the report.
While media largely ignores these white supremacist evangelists, anyone reading the comment section of the newspapers can sense the racism and hatred widely rampant in the western society.
"White nationalist terrorism has increasingly been tied to online activity, as seen in cases such as Dylann Roof, a white nationalist who is charged with killing nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina in June 2015,2 and Anders Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist who promoted an anti-Muslim manifesto on Twitter and Facebook," the report says.
2.White nationalists and Nazis had substantially higher follower counts than ISIS supporters. (Notebaly, the report does not mention any ISIS statistics or hashtags)
3. Followers of white nationalists on Twitter were heavily invested in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
4. White nationalism is highly factionalized and includes a number of competing movements. On Twitter, accounts focused on Nazi sympathies were more prevalent than any other white nationalist movement, and pro-Nazi propaganda was tweeted more often than any other content.
5. Within the broader community of white nationalists, organized recruitment, proselytization, and social media activism were primarily carried out with a Nazi slant. Recruitment focused on the theme of white genocide and used terminology drawn from popular entertainment.
7. Small groups of users tweeting in concert at high volumes can amplify their effect, causing hashtags and content to trend in numbers significant enough to prompt mainstream media coverage.
The report further illustrates that the most popular theme among white nationalists on Twitter was the concept of “white genocide,” the notion that the “white race” is directly endangered by the increasing diversity of society. Activists frequently tweeted an associated slogan: “Anti-Racist is a code word for AntiWhite.” #Whitegenocide was found to be one of the most tweeted hashtags.
The Program on Extremism at George Washington University provides analysis on issues related to violent and non-violent extremism.
This study examines and compares the use of Twitter by white nationalists, Nazi sympathizers, and ISIS supporters respectively, providing some preliminary comparisons of how each movement uses the platform.
This study examines and compares the use of Twitter by white nationalists, Nazi sympathizers, and ISIS supporters respectively, providing some preliminary comparisons of how each movement uses the platform.
Major findings include:
1. Major American white nationalist movements on Twitter saw an outstanding rise of following in last four years, an increase of about 600%. The increase is driven by organized activism by white racist flooding and trolling social media communities with hate contents.
1. Major American white nationalist movements on Twitter saw an outstanding rise of following in last four years, an increase of about 600%. The increase is driven by organized activism by white racist flooding and trolling social media communities with hate contents.
2.White nationalists and Nazis had substantially higher follower counts than ISIS supporters. (Notebaly, the report does not mention any ISIS statistics or hashtags)
3. Followers of white nationalists on Twitter were heavily invested in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
4. White nationalism is highly factionalized and includes a number of competing movements. On Twitter, accounts focused on Nazi sympathies were more prevalent than any other white nationalist movement, and pro-Nazi propaganda was tweeted more often than any other content.
5. Within the broader community of white nationalists, organized recruitment, proselytization, and social media activism were primarily carried out with a Nazi slant. Recruitment focused on the theme of white genocide and used terminology drawn from popular entertainment.
7. Small groups of users tweeting in concert at high volumes can amplify their effect, causing hashtags and content to trend in numbers significant enough to prompt mainstream media coverage.
8. Media coverage can lead to increased curiosity about extremist groups, feeding their social media success.
A disclaimer is available at the bottom of the first page of the report that George Washington University is not responsible for the views of the author J.M. Berger, the title is intentionally kept misleading as there is no research on ISIS twitter activity. Rather the succinct brief effectively compares White Nationalist and American Nazis. The common headlines for the reports in that White supremacist outperform ISIS but the report doesn't even mention a single statistics about ISIS media activism on social media let alone the hashtags.
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