Between 500 and 2,000 users tweet about 545 to 2,000 posts each and every day. Most of the messages are in Arabic, with one in five tweeted in English, according to a study, “The ISIS Twitter Census,” published by the Washington D.C.-based Brookings Institute.
The terror group has been able to exert a great deal of influence on how the world perceives them through their use of a number of social media sites, but the greatest number of messages have been found on Twitter. The report pointed out: “Although much ink has been spilled on the topic of ISIS activity on Twitter, very basic questions remain unanswered, including such fundamental issues as how many Twitter users support ISIS, who they are, and how many of those supporters take part in its highly organized online activities.”
While the number of Twitter accounts is staggering, even more amazing is the number of followers, averaging 1,000 for each account, says Brookings. Most of the ISIS supporters were within the areas where the group is operating as well as Saudi Arabia, according to the report and started their Twitter accounts as early as 2014.
A focus of the study was whether or not to suspend the social media accounts. But the report contends that doing so could lead to unfortunate consequences. “Account suspensions do not have concrete effects in limiting the reach and scope of ISIS activities on social media,” the report said. “The process of suspension does create certain new risks … they isolate ISIS supporters online.”
By the time the research into the number of Twitter accounts started in September, 2014, Twitter had already begun suspending accounts linked to ISIS. The Brookings report suggests that doing so could create an even more radicalized group of followers, hindering any social pressures in attempting to deradicalize these users. The report recommends that governments and social media work together to find new ways to tackle the problem.
