White Nationalist Movement Growing Much Faster Than ISIS

The number of white nationalists and self-identified Nazi sympathisers on Twitter have multiplied more than 600 per cent in the last four years, outperforming the so-called Islamic State (Isis) in everything from follower counts to number of daily tweets, a new study found.

Researchers at George Washington University’s Programme on Extremism analysed 18 accounts belonging to major white nationalist groups and organisations – such as the American Nazi Party and the National Socialist Movement – mostly located in the US.

These accounts saw a sharp increase in followers, from about 3,500 in 2012 to 22,000 in 2016. The study notes that while Isis stood out for its outreach and recruitment using Twitter since the group’s emergence a few years ago, white nationalist groups have excelled in the medium.

The report underscores the declining influence of Isis on the social media platform as Twitter continues to crackdown on the Islamist militant group. In August, the company said that it shut down roughly 360,000 accounts for what they saw as promoting terrorism.

Yet, the GWU study said that white nationalists are using the site with “relative impunity”.
“On Twitter, Isis' preferred social platform, American white nationalist movements have seen their followers grow by more than 600 per cent since 2012,” the study, authored by JM Berger, stated. “Today, they outperform Isis in nearly every social metric, from follower counts to tweets per day.”

When questioned about the report, a representative for Twitter referred Reuters to their terms of service that prohibit “hateful conduct”.

Donald Trump is a prominent subject among white nationalists on Twitter. According to the study, white nationalist users are “heavily invested” in the Republican’s candidacy. Tweets mentioned Mr Trump more than other popular topics among the groups.

As public scrutiny on the pervasiveness of white supremacy in social media increases, critics call on Twitter to do more to curb racist abuse on the site – yet it continues to thrive.

In July, following the release of the Ghostbusters reboot, a star of the film, Leslie Jones, became the victim of vicious racist attacks on the site. She quickly condemned Twitter for the lack of response to the harassment.

“Twitter I understand you got free speech I get it,” she tweeted, calling for guidelines to stop the spread of hate speech on the platform.

Source