Terrorist chatter: Understanding what terrorists talk about
Project Title
“Terrorist chatter”: Understanding what terrorists talk about
Lead / Author
Lorenzo Vidino; Flashpoint Global Partners
Relevant Dates
Report submitted June 2014.
Description
Through a content analysis of the online activities of seven US-based individuals with proven terrorist ties, the study seeks to better understand the role that the Internet plays in radicalization to violence inspired by groups like Al Qaida. Drawing on a collection of open online sources, the aim of the project was to identify the topics most discussed by the militants, their trajectories of radicalization to violence, and the interaction with their online interlocutors. The online materials were supplemented with other publicly available sources such as court documents and media reports, in order to help trace timelines and compare online and offline behaviors.
In the course of the research, close to 2000 public online postings by the seven individuals were amassed, and the content was assessed and coded so as to analyze the prominence of social, religious and political themes, as well as combinations of these categories. Short and long excerpts of some of these varied postings are presented throughout the report. In analyzing the postings, the study seeks to provide pointers for practitioners in the field of countering violent extremism – including what to focus upon and when to intervene.
Select Findings
Based on the analyzed texts, many differences across the seven individuals are identified. Some focused heavily on religious matters in their postings; while others rarely posted on such subjects. The writings of two of the seven individuals were found to be consistently aggressive; while for another, his postings were consistently characterized by kindness. One bemoans socialism in his postings; another argues against capitalism. For some of the seven individuals there was a progression over time towards more radical views or increasing desire to use violence; while for others there was not.
As for commonalities, the researchers found that among those who displayed interest in religious matters, they initially seemed to be ‘seekers’ of knowledge – such as about whether a certain religious scholar was worth respect. The study notes that this open inquisitiveness seemed to slowly decrease over time, to be replaced by increasingly confident pronouncements of an individual’s own knowledge. Also found in some cases was a pattern whereby the set of scholars cited as authoritative shifted over time to voices with distinctly more violent views.
Though acknowledging the limits to the study, including the small sample size and reliance on open information, the researchers present a series of implications based on their findings. This includes that efforts to counter violent extremism should take into consideration the centrality of certain religious issues for individuals such as those studied in this project. The authors emphasize that there is no one path to violent extremism and no common profile, that each case should be analyzed individually, and that tactics aimed at preventing or reversing the radicalization process need to be equally diverse. Even so, the authors argue that the avid seeking of knowledge about religion was relatively common at the early stages, despite the different trajectories of the seven individuals, and that this seeking phase suggests opportunities for effective early intervention.
Further Information
Terrorist chatter: Understanding what terrorists talk about
Related Initiatives
Joseph A. Carter, Shiraz Maher and Peter R. Neumann, “#Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks,” ICSR, 2014.
Peter R. Neumann, “Victims, Perpetrators, Assets: The Narratives of Islamic State Defectors,” ICSR, 2015.
Ragheb Abdo, “Assessment of A Foreign Fighter's Twitter Trajectory: Before and After Travel,“ The SecDev Group, 2014.
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