Hate%20%u201CClusters%u201D%20Spread%20Disinformation%20Across%20Social%20media.%20Mapping%20Their%20Networks%20Could%20Disrupt%20Their%20Reach.%20%7C%20by%20Jigsaw%20%7C%20Jigsaw%20%7C%20Jul%2C%202021%20%7C%20Medium

Hate%20%u201CClusters%u201D%20Spread%20Disinformation%20Across%20Social%20media.%20Mapping%20Their%20Networks%20Could%20Disrupt%20Their%20Reach.%20%7C%20by%20Jigsaw%20%7C%20Jigsaw%20%7C%20Jul%2C%202021%20%7C%20Medium: A%20new%20study%20directly%20addresses%20the%20decentralized%20nature%20of%20harmful%20content%20by%20applying%20a%20novel%20%u201Ccluster%u201D%20analysis%20methodology.%20An%20interdisciplinary%20team%20of%20social%20scientists%20and%20natural%20scientists%20at%20George%20Washington%20University%20developed%20this%20approach%20to%20study%20ISIS%20online%20in%202016.%20They%20identified%20196%20pro-ISIS%20%u201Cclusters%u201D%2C%20or%20groups%20of%20individual%20users%20on%20a%20social%20media%20platform%2C%20as%20ISIS%20was%20rising%20in%20prominence%20and%20attracting%20recruits%20online%20internationally.%20They%20found%20that%20these%20self-organizing%20clusters%20behaved%20much%20more%20fluidly%20than%20traditional%2C%20hierarchical%20militant%20groups%20and%20therefore%20better%20captured%20how%20modern%20extremist%20movements%20were%20operating%20online.%20This%20%u201Cmeso-level%u201D%20analysis%20of%20extremist%20clusters%20%u2014%20looking%20neither%20at%20the%20micro-level%20individual%20extremist%20nor%20at%20the%20macro-level%20global%20offline%20movement%20%u2014%20offered%20a%20valuable%20window%20into%20the%20movement%u2019s%20future%3B%20the%20team%20found%20that%20cluster%20activity%20could%20help%20predict%20real-world%20attacks.