Social media cluster dynamics create resilient global hate highways

Abstract

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.