Social media cluster dynamics create resilient global hate highways


Abstract in English

Online social media allows individuals to cluster around common interests - including hate. We show that tight-knit social clusters interlink to form resilient global hate highways that bridge independent social network platforms, countries, languages and ideologies, and can quickly self-repair and rewire. We provide a mathematical theory that reveals a hidden resilience in the global axis of hate; explains a likely ineffectiveness of current control methods; and offers improvements. Our results reveal new science for networks-of-networks driven by bipartite dynamics, and should apply more broadly to illicit networks.

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