Extremists subtly recruit new members online
Published: Monday, Aug 5th 2024, 14:20
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Members of extremist groups use seemingly harmless interactions to recruit new members on the internet. In doing so, they often circumvent the moderation guidelines of the platforms. These are the findings of a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
Fringe groups that spread conspiracy theories and extremist ideologies thrive on online platforms that are used by the general public. Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have tried to better understand what encourages the growth of these groups.
A team from the Data Science Laboratory (DLAB) targeted three large groups on the American discussion and news platform Reddit: r/Incels, r/GenderCritical and r/The Donald.
"It is known that there are extremist communities on the major online social platforms and that these platforms try to moderate them. But even with moderation, these communities continue to grow," Giuseppe Russo, postdoctoral researcher at DLAB and lead author of the study, was quoted as saying in a press release issued by EPFL on Monday.
The researchers found that interactions between "a vulnerable user" and a person already active in an extremist community led to people on the fringes of society moving closer to these groups.
Circumvention of directives
The interactions were mainly thematic discussions, "which attract attention and are a clever way to avoid the moderation guidelines", the researcher explained further. The comments were not obvious, such as "Join my community".
People who had such interactions were up to 4.2 percentage points more likely to join fringe communities than similar users who did not have these interactions.
One click is enough
As soon as a vulnerable user participates in a comment exchange, it only takes one click to find an extremist online community - because each user profile immediately shows the groups in which the person is active.
Furthermore, the scientists found that this recruitment method only occurs in extremist communities. They did not find it in communities that are concerned with the climate, games, sport or other topics, for example.
The study, which is in the pre-publication phase, was awarded the prize for the best scientific article at the 18th International AAAI Conference on the Web and Social Media (ICWSM), which took place in the USA in June.
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