The Arabic discourse about support for ISIS on Twitter and what we can learn from that

03/14/2018

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by   A. Ceron, et al.

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Using a new supervised aggregated sentiment analysis algorithm (iSA), we analyze 26.2 million comments published in Arabic language on Twitter, from July 2014 to January 2015, when ISIS' strength reached its peak and the group was prominently expanding the territorial area under its control. By doing that, we are able to measure the share of support and aversion toward the Islamic State within the online Arab communities. Applying statistical analysis to the results of sentiment analysis we then investigate two specific topics. First, by exploiting the time-granularity of the tweets, we link the opinions with daily events to understand the main determinants of the changing trend in support toward ISIS. Second, by taking advantage of the geographical locations of tweets, we explore the relationship between online opinions across countries and the number of foreign fighters joining ISIS.