MESOP RESEARCH : ISIS TWITTER CENSUS BY BROOKINGS

“The ISIS Twitter Census: Defining and describing the population of ISIS supporters on Twitter” (J.M Berger and Jonathon Morgan, Brookings Institution)

Account suspensions do have concrete effects in limiting the reach and scope of ISIS activities on social media. They do not, at the current level of implementation, eliminate those activities, and cannot be expected to do this. Some critics argue suspensions are ineffective because ISIS propaganda is still available on Twitter. Any balanced evaluation of current levels of suspension activity clearly demonstrates that total interdiction is not the goal. The qualitative debate is over how suspensions affect the performance of the network and whether a different level of pressure might produce a different result. While it is possible to target suspensions in a manner that would be far more devastating to ISIS networks, we do not advise such an approach for several reasons.”

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2AMideast%20Brief&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign