Changing Tides: Online Conspiracy Theory Use by Radical Violent Extremist Groups Over Time

Radical violent extremist terrorism is a global issue that has existed for centuries and has been the cause of millions of deaths. Extremist organizations have learned to adapt and survive attempts at legal and military interdictions. One possible major element that allows for the survival of these radicalized organizations is the use of conspiracy theories within their online messages that are used to radicalize and recruit members to their cause. These conspiracy theories tend to elicit two types of messages: a quest for significance or a loss of significance. This study aims to observe how extremist organizations utilize conspiracy theories in their online messages and whether these messages adapt to the standing of the organization (their growth, height, and decline). This study will utilize a 2x3 non-experimental, correlational content analysis of historical documents using text-based algorithms via latent dirichlet allocation to examine the frequency of conspiracy theory usage (presence or absence) from a radical Islamic and a right-wing extremist group, as well as the frequency of the type of conspiracy theory used over time.