The paper was written after analysis using a “first of its kind” mapping technique, according to George Washington University, which worked with the University of Miami.
“We set out to get to the bottom of on-line hate by looking at why it is so resilient and how it can be better tackled,” said project lead Neil Johnson.
To understand how hate evolves on-line, the team mapped how clusters interconnect to spread their narratives and attract new recruits – clusters that form readily and easily, said GWU.
Focusing on Facebook and its central European counterpart VKontakte, the researchers started with a given hate cluster and looked outward to find a second one that was strongly connected to the original.