Michigan State University was recently awarded $585,719 by the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) for the study, which groups the ‘far right’ in with Islamic jihadists:
“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 NIJ’s 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.”
Here again we have the feds demonizing the right as violent radicals on the same level as Islamic militants. Let’s make this very clear, Truth and Action in NO way, shape or form promotes or condones violence – and doing so on our Facebook page will get users banned. We exist only to deliver information that the mainstream media ignores and we sometimes invite our readers to take legal and lawful actions to help those in need or to object to legislation not consistent with our Constitution.
But what will likely happen to enable the feds to easily take down conservative sites? After they have done their ‘due diligence’ with these studies, they only need to take some radical reader, contrived or not, that commits an act of violence and blame it on a particular site they may have visited or group they may have associated with.
“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.”
The results will be used for a public webinar, and for presentations for counterterrorism experts in the United States.
Holder highlighted the study in remarks this February at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, as an example of the new methods the Justice Department is using to combat terrorist threats.
Holder said the study will “help us develop more effective techniques and partnerships for counter-messaging.”
While the grant does not name the “far-right” groups that would be examined, other federal agencies have devoted their energy to the sovereign citizen movement.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report on the movement, whose members believe that U.S. laws do not apply to them, just as the White House held its summit on violent extremism. The administration did not use the phrase “Islamist extremism” at the summit.
DHS stirred controversy in 2009 when it issued a report on right-wing extremism, which included veterans returning from combat as a potential terrorist threat.
Michigan State University is overrun with muslim islams who are probably islamic jihadists themselves. typical of our government to have the fox supposedly watching the hen house to spy on their true enemies the ‘conservatives’ or anyone who speaks out against them. another more appropriately neutral agency should be sought. this data is tainted. more tax payer money flushed down the toilet.