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November 16, 2021

Understanding the Salafi Online Ecosystem: A Digital Snapshot

ISD UK

Islamist Extremism, Terrorism and Extremism

As part of ISD’s Gen Z & The Digital Salafi Ecosystem project, this report presents the findings from ISD’s data-driven snapshot of the Salafi digital landscape across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, TikTok and a range of standalone websites. This dataset of almost 3.5 million posts across nearly 1,500 channels and accounts provides unique insights into the scale, platform landscape and narrative tone of discussions within these online spaces.

ISD’s pioneering new research maps the rapidly evolving online Salafi ecosystem, providing a cross-platform snapshot of a broad landscape of English, German and Arabic content. To read about the full series on Salafism click here. 

Senior Advisors and Contributing Editors: Farah Pandith & Rashad Ali

ISD Contributors

Jakob Guhl
Director of Policy & Research, Counter-Extremism, Europe

Milo Comerford
Senior Director of Policy & Research, Counter-Extremism