ISIS Radicalization, Counter-Extremism, and Visual Propaganda on Social Media, with Dr. Tamar Mitts

Social Media and Politics

Dr. Tamar Mitts, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, shares her research on ISIS radicalization and it's relationship to social isolation, anti-Muslim sentiment, and counter-extremism programs. We discuss Dr. Mitts' Twitter dataset that uses spatial algorithms to identify ISIS sympathizers' locations and machine learning to identify pro-ISIS sentiment. Toward the end of the episode, we discuss how computer vision tools such as Amazon's Rekognition API can be used to detect violent imagery in ISIS propaganda.

Here are the studies we discuss in the episode:

From Isolation to Radicalization: Anti-Muslim Hostility and Support for ISIS in the West (2019)

Countering Violent Extremism and Radical Rhetoric (2021)

Studying the Impact of ISIS Propaganda Campaigns (Forthcoming)