300 Americans Support ISIS on Social Media, Study Finds

ISIS supporters in the United States are actively recruiting via social media, a new study reported.

According to the research team from George Washington University's Program on Extremism, there are about 300 Americans or people living in the U.S. with extremist views who are using the Internet to find like-minded people, who the recruiters then encourage to travel to Iraq or Syria where they could potentially join the terrorist group. Some of the recruiters reportedly encouraged people to plan and carry out attacks within the U.S.

In the report, the authors stated that about 250 Americans had visited or attempted to visit Iraq or Syria. The estimate was based on information from American authorities. They added that there are currently 900 investigations looking into potential ISIS supporters from all 50 states.

Since March of last year, 71 people in the country have been arrested under suspicion that they were working with ISIS. 56 of these arrests happened in 2015, which is the largest number of arrests made since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

The supporters tended to be young (mid-20s) and male. However, overall, the supporters appear to be very diverse.

"The profiles ... differ widely in race, age, social class, education, and family background," the report said. "Their motivations are equally diverse and defy easy analysis."

Study investigator, Lorenzo Vidino, added, "The individuals range from hardened militants to teenage girls, petty criminals and college students. The diversity is staggering."

The most common form of social media that these ISIS supporters used was Twitter.

"ISIS-related mobilization in the United States has been unprecedented," the researchers wrote. They noted that the number of supporters in the U.S. is still significantly less than the number seen in European nations.

The authors cited one example of recruitment. They wrote:

"[A] seemingly naive individual posted general questions about religion [on Twitter], to which ISIS supporters quickly responded in a calm and authoritative manner. After a few weeks, the accounts of hardened ISIS supporters slowly introduced increasingly ardent views into the conversation. The new recruit was then invited to continue the conversion privately."

Aside from online activity, the researchers mentioned that there are some small groups of ISIS supporters living throughout the country. They did not elaborate on the nature of these groups in order to avoid hurting any investigations.

For more information on the entire report, click here.