Islamist Communities on VKontakte: Identification Mechanisms and Network Structure

Mikhail Myagkov, Sergey I. Chudinov, Vitaliy V. Kashpur, Vyacheslav L. Goiko and Evgeny V. Shchekotin

Europe-Asia Studies, 2020, vol. 72, issue 5, 863-893

Abstract: This article examines the presence of extremist online communities on the Russian social network VKontakte following the tightening by Russian federal аuthorities of internet counter-extremism policies and censorship. Extremist communities were detected using linguistic markers for extremist attitudes and radical violence. The study of socio-demographic data and network metrics of Islamist extremist communities reveals some general tendencies in the Russian context: a majority of female participants, a highly decentralised community network structure, radical Salafism as the mainstream ideology and covert proselytisation through the discussion of Islamic theology and lifestyle issues that are not in themselves extremist.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2019.1694645

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