© flickr.com/ Ministerio TIC Colombia
TOMSK, Jul 26 – RIA Tomsk. Researchers of the Laboratory for
Big Data Science and Social Studies of Tomsk State University (TSU) analyzed 29
Islamic communities in the social network VKontakte and identified in what ways
extremist groups adapt to toughening of monitoring from social network
administrations, the university press service said on Wednesday.
According to the website of TSU, the Big Data Research Laboratory was
established in TSU in November 2016, the partners of the university are the
InfoWatch group of companies, Kaspersky Lab, Ashmanov and Partners. The
laboratory specializes in the study of social media.
"Scientists analyzed 29 groups (in the social network VKontakte),
identified as Islamic, propagandizing extremism, ranging in size from 150 to
160 thousand ... After 2012, when the register of banned sites appeared and
<...> the censorship policy in social networks become tougher, the
online-groups of extremist orientation had to adapt to the new
conditions", – is said in the statement.
Researchers identified two main tactics for adapting extremist groups to evade
blocking of VKontakte: "soft extremism," when the group's reports
reduce the degree of radicalism, and a veiled form of filing community topics
when materials from Islamist groups and topics for discussion are disguised as
discussions of details of a religious law or Sharia regulations.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
"In such groups there is a hidden radical discourse which can not be
uncovered by means of automatic monitoring. They often propagandize the
doctrine of "friendship and enmity" characteristic of radical cells
in Islam, claiming that a Muslim should follow only Islamic components of
culture <...> rigidly cutting off another cultural experience", – the employee of the Laboratory Sergey Chudinov is quoted in the message.
To automatically filter such resources scientists developed a glossary of terms
and linguistic constructions peculiar to extremist groups of Islam, then an
expert assessment of the content was made, and only after confirming the
linguistic and doctrinal components of extremism scientists put the community
in the monitoring list, is said in the report.