This article was translated from Spanish
The same equation governs the evolution of Islamic extremism and in the US
Initial online support for the Boogaloos, one of the groups implicated in the January 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, followed the same mathematical pattern as Daesh.
Despite the marked ideological, geographical and cultural differences between their forms of extremism, that is the conclusion of a new study published by researchers at George Washington University.
"This study helps provide a better understanding of the emergence of extremist movements in the United States The same equation governs the evolution of Islamic extremism and in the US and around the world," said Neil Johnson, professor of physics. "By identifying common hidden patterns in what appear to be completely unrelated movements, with a rigorous mathematical description of how they unfold, our findings could help social media platforms disrupt the growth of such extremist groups," explains Johnson, who is also a researcher at the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics of this university.