Posted on 06/01/2015 5:55:49 AM PDT by lbryce
The Department of Justice is concentrating on “far-right” groups in a new study of social media usage aimed at combatting violent extremism. The Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded Michigan State University $585,719 for the study, which was praised by Eric Holder, the former attorney general, earlier this year. “There is currently limited knowledge of the role of technology and computer mediated communications (CMCs), such as Facebook and Twitter, in the dissemination of messages that promote extremist agendas and radicalize individuals to violence,” according to the NIJ grant. “The proposed study will address this gap through a series of qualitative and quantitative analyses of posts from various forms of CMC used by members of both the far-right and Islamic extremist movements.”
The study draws more upon right-wing forums than upon the corners of the web inhabited by Islamist extremists.
“We will collect posts made in four active forums used by members of the far-right and three from the Islamic Extremist community, as well as posts made in Facebook, LiveJournal, Twitter, YouTube, and Pastebin accounts used by members of each movement,” the grant said. “The findings will be used to document both the prevalence and variation in the ideological content of posts from members of each movement,” the grant continued. “In addition, we will assess the value of these messages in the social status of the individual posting the message and the function of radical messages in the larger on-line identity of participants in extremist communities generally.”
The project will also “identify the hidden networks of individuals who engage in extremist movements based on geographic location and ideological similarities.”
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
They said they won’t release their list
They have no right to make it political. This is worse than Watergate. If it were a Republican administration investigating the left this would such a major scandal.
FOIA request should work in this study. No reason for it to be a government secret
Scandaloosa
I jest with that word but seriously, this is so scandalous. This should be a HUGE media obsession and investigation.
Remember the reports about who the Southern Poverty Law whatchacallit placing righty groups on their list of hate groups? Add to that the targeting of conservative groups and people by the IRS. This is a gigantic scandal.
It’s not just democrats. In fact, the GOP-E has more reason to support this study than do the democrats. It’s them we affect the most.
Not to say the entire establishment isn’t invested in ridding itself of a true conservative movement. It is, however, hard to imagine them going after conservative discussion sites and not bothering at least to ‘think about’ the largest conservative discussion site on the entire world wide web....Free Republic.
Given all the threats made against Bush by DU when he was president, they should have been investigated.
There are frauds in the GOP leadership and I think there are some even on this board. Anyone can lie and pretend to be something they are not just to obstruct their enemy. It is an ancient tactic of the unscrupulous. It is a common war tactic.
I was surprised how things had changed on this forum after being gone for a number of years. I tried to sign up with a new user name and got banned 2 or 3 times before trying to remember my old password. I’m not accusing anyone specifically because I do not know who is in charge of that. I completely trust Jim Robinson. But I do think I am conservative enough to not deserve to be banned repeatedly. What is up with that?
I’ve never been a mod or in any role at all with Free Republic other than simple freeper. I have no idea how things work at that level. I’ve seen bannings and suspensions that made me scratch my head, but for the most part, the trolls I’ve seen banned had the posting record to confirm they were trolls.
In the religion forum, all bets are off. People go in there and just get crazy over what should unite them. So you’ll see some of the otherwise finest conservative people get nailed when they get to shouting at each other over religious disagreements.
I kept getting banned for politics, not religion.
LOL. They already know what the libtard groups are doing. They do what the feral gummint tells them too.
NOTE Lawyer participation in this program is grounds for immediate disbarment under the US doctrine called "clean hands." "Clean hands" is a legal term meaning US justice is not dispensed to anyone who has committed an offense against the law....such as jumping the border.
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“Call it what it is : White House Enemies List”
Yeah well...desperate people do desperate things.
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