Resurgent Insurgents: Quantitative Research Into Jihadists Who Get Suspended but Return on Twitter

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1213

Keywords:

ISIS, Twitter, social media, suspension, resurgents, big data, modern terrorism, whack-a-mole

Abstract

Jihadists are very active on Twitter but their accounts frequently get suspended. A substantial debate over the effectiveness of suspension has arisen; an important factor is that Jihadists quickly create new accounts, resurging back like a game of whack-a-mole. This causes biases for terrorism and intelligence analysts. Whilst widely acknowledged, little research addresses the problem. In this study we identify resurging Jihadist accounts with novel methods, and provide detailed analysis going beyond previous case-studies. We show that suspension is less disruptive to terrorists than previously thought, whilst the bias and disruption caused to terrorism research has been underestimated.

Author Biographies

Shaun Wright, Royal Holloway University of London

Shaun Wright is a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway University of London where he is also a visiting teaching assistant and guest lectures on the Terrorism, Insecurity and Risk course. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of terrorism studies, he has supervisors in the departments of Biological Sciences, Law, Criminology & Sociology, and Geography. He studied for his undergraduate BA at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University, combining courses in Computer Science, Psychology and Neuroscience.

David Denney, Royal Holloway University of London

David Denney is Professor of Social and Public Policy in the School of Law, Royal Holloway University of London. He has written extensively on various aspects of risk in society, violent crime and discrimination in the criminal justice system. He is currently Principal Investigator on ESRC Dstl funded research which examines the impact of social media on military personnel and their families.

Alasdair Pinkerton, Royal Holloway University of London

Alasdair Pinkerton is a political geographer with particular interests in issues related to critical geopolitics, the media, and the 'international relations' of public diplomacy. He has regional specialisms in the South Atlantic and South Asia, as well as working extensively in the US, Canada, the UK and Cyprus. He appears frequently in the UK and international media on issues related to global geopolitics.

Vincent A.A. Jansen, Royal Holloway University of London

Vincent Jansen is a Professor of Mathematical Biology at Royal Holloway University of London. He is interested in population dynamics and evolution, including the dynamics and evolution of social systems. His research entails the formulation and analysis of mathematical models to understand biological processes, and he has applied this to a range topics in biology and beyond. Part of his research has addressed how social networks form, how people communicate on social networks and how our language is shaped and influenced by the social network that we are embedded in.

John Bryden, Royal Holloway University of London

John Bryden is a Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University of London interested in group behaviour, dynamics and evolution in biological systems and human societies. More generally, he is interested in the modelling of complex systems and the methodological issues raised by the modelling of complex systems. He is building a methodological approach for the studying of human behaviour in social systems by applying models to large data sets. He has recently published work studying how humans cluster into groups on social networks and the effects this has on their language.

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Published

2016-05-17

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2016)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2016 The Author(s)

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