Online Recruitment by White Supremacists in the U.S. and Jihadis in Europe

The Project:

My second-module project is to carry out a comparative analysis of online recruitment methods that are being used by so-called white supremacist groups in the United States and by Islamist extremist groups in Western Europe. I shall use Social Network Analysis (SNA) and other tools, in seeking to identify significant similarities and differences between the recruitment behaviors of these two groupings of extremists.

Background:

The purpose of my analysis, in searching for patterns and similarities in online recruitment by white supremacists and jihadis, is to understand more fully the process of radicalization that is being used by both extremist groups, in order to help develop more effective strategies for preventing the recruitment of young people into these violent movements. While much radicalization is taking place offline, the revolution in social media and other online resources has made it easier for extremist ideas to spread quickly, for new radical groups to gain traction and for established groups rapidly to expand.

SNA has been used for several years to study the structures of and communication flows within Islamist extremist organizations, but it is a relatively new tool for those working to understand and to tackle right-wing extremist groups in the United States. One reason for this late adoption is the relatively slow public recognition in the U.S. of the spread of and the danger posed by domestic right-wing extremists. Many of these groups are armed and are using social media and other online resources to attract, mobilize, recruit and organize members. While many news headlines since the 9/11 attacks have focused on the threat posed globally by Islamist extremists, several studies, including the 2017 report “A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States” by the Anti-Defamation League, argue that white supremacists and other right-wing extremists pose a far greater danger domestically, based on the frequency of attacks and of the number of people killed.

Personal experiences have led me to investigate online recruitment methods being used by jihadis in Europe and by right-wing extremists in the U.S.. Several years ago, while working as a correspondent for Reuters news agency, I did a number of long interviews in the Midwest and the southern U.S. with individuals who belonged to or were supporters of anti-government militia groups. Subsequently, while doing counter-radicalization work in London with young Muslim Britons, I learned from former jihadis about methods being used by Islamist extremist organizations to recruit vulnerable young people. I noticed some striking similarities on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the ideological and logistical supply chain that has helped to transform many frustrated, socially-isolated young people into violent radicals.

Research Questions:

I am seeking to identify whether there are similarities in the way that white supremacists in the U.S. and jihadis in Europe carry out online recruitment. I am keen to understand whether social media and other online resources play the same role for extremists on each side of the Atlantic and, if so, whether this clearer picture and greater understanding can be used to create effective online counter-narratives and other tools for combatting the radicalization of vulnerable young people.

Hypotheses:

In my second-module project, I shall be testing the hypothesis that there are significant similarities in the way that jihadis in Europe and white supremacists in the U.S. use social media and other online resources in order to attract, recruit, motivate and organize members. I shall also seek to prove that these similarities are present not only regarding those extremists who engage in organized group violence, but also those who carry out the so-called “lone wolf” attack, in which an individual acts alone to commit violence in the name of an ideological cause. Finally, I shall be looking to test my hypothesis that each radical group – jihadis in Europe and white supremacists in the U.S. – is stronger and more effective than the other in certain aspects of online recruiting, and that identifying, getting a clearer picture of and understanding these differences will help to create new tools for countering both types of radicalization.

Data Collection:

There are three strands to my data-collection plan. I intend to: (1) use existing data, if and when available, on individuals and extremist attacks that I shall study; (2) create data sets of these individuals and attacks, drawing information from news reports and other public-domain sources; and (3) create data sets from one or more surveys that I shall design and carry out, using “Survey Monkey” software.

SNA Methodology:

A comprehensive and exhaustive comparison of online recruiting by white supremacists in the U.S. and Islamist extremists in Europe would be a huge endeavor. Given the limited time and other resources at my disposal, I aim to examine closely one slice of the big picture, by comparing four attacks that have taken place in recent years. These will comprise two Islamist-extremist attacks in Europe, one carried out by a group and the other by a “lone-wolf” individual, and two attacks in the U.S., again, one by a group and the other by a lone actor.

The reason that I shall examine attacks not only carried out by groups, but also by lone-wolf attackers, is that the latter individuals, while considered less capable of launching a large 9/11-style attack, have proven capable of killing many people, and of spreading panic and fear about public spaces. While many counter-extremism studies have focused on large, highly-organized attacks involving several actors, the widespread availability in the U.S. of rapid-fire weapons – a factor absent from Europe – means that lone-actor attackers pose a different, but also significant kind of danger. They are able to operate more quietly, below the radar of police and members of the intelligence community, before carrying out an attack in which a large number of people are killed. Since the dynamic of an organized terrorist group differs from that of the lone attacker, I shall examine in turn the networks involved in both types of attacks.

In order to compare the two group attacks with one another and to do the same regarding the two lone-wolf attacks, I plan to build a series of network maps of the attacks and of the attackers, including people, organizations, online resources, ideological themes and other elements that may have influenced the extremists. I shall examine the shape, size and nature of the networks, including their density and cohesion, in order better to understand connections, affiliations and the flow of information.

While I do not expect SNA alone to provide break-through answers regarding the quest to counter online radicalization, I believe that the above networks will, at the very least, provide a clearer picture and a better understanding of the relationships and the dynamics behind these extremist attacks.

Challenges and Limitations:

There are several challenges and limitations regarding the focus of my research. One difficulty is the disparate nature of extremist Islamist groups in Europe and of white supremacist groups in the U.S.. While the simplicity of my research question suggests that these are coherent, easily-categorized entities, the reality is quite different. For instance, some studies done on right-wing extremists in the U.S. have revealed that while there are overlaps and connections between some domestic extreme-right-wing groups – including white supremacists, anti-government radicals and anti-abortion-rights vigilantes – others operate independently and some are openly hostile to one another. Similarly, regarding Islamist extremists in Europe, there is no one homogenous group. Rather, there is a large number, with some organizations changing rapidly in nature and ideology, and fierce rivalries sometimes erupting between extremist factions.

The geographic split as defined by my project will have to be clearly explained and addressed. By examining Islamist extremists in Europe and white supremacists in the U.S., I am not suggesting that none of the former exists in the U.S. nor the latter in Europe. However, based on personal observations in the field and, importantly, on media reports and research papers on these movements, I believe that, of the two types of extremists, jihadis pose the greater threat in Europe, while white supremacists represent the larger danger in the U.S.. Therefore, in addition to looking for similarities in their online recruiting, I shall be searching for lessons regarding each group of extremists that can be applied to the other.

Finally, language is a significant limitation for my second-module project. I am an English speaker with some European languages, but I do not speak nor read the other languages in which online radicalizing is being done, including Arabic and Urdu. I shall need to address this issue in my paper.

Initial Source Research:

I am in the early stages of my research, but I expect to use the following as a point of departure, as I establish a research framework and identify possible data for my project:

·      “The Link Between White Supremacists and Islamic Terrorism”, by Michael German, The Cipher Brief, Cyber Advisory Board, 4/20/17

·      “Nazis vs ISIS on Twitter: A Comparative Study of White Nationalist and ISIS Online Social Media Networks”, by J Berger, George Washington University Program on Extremism, Sept 2016

·      “Recruitment and Radicalization among U.S. Far-Right Terrorists: Report to the Office of University Programs, Science and Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security”, report by National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Nov 2016

·      “Extremist networks and lethality: A mapping of violent white supremacist group networks and an investigation of the relationship between network location and ideologically motivated murder”, by David Freilich Caspi, dissertation, 2010, ISBN: 978112406914

·      “Who Matters Online: Measuring Influence, Evaluating Content and Countering Violent Extremism in Online Social Networks”, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, 2013

·      “Terrorist Experts’ Perception of How the Internet has Shaped International Terrorism”, by Samuel Escobedo Wilson, dissertation, 2014, ISBN: 9781321443646

·      “The Face of White Supremacy in 2017: Traditional White Supremacist Organizations Attempt to Rebrand”, State of New York – Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, 6/12/17

·      “A Dark and Constant Rage: 25 Years of Right-Wing Terrorism in the United States”, report by the Anti-Defamation League, 2017