Network Contagion Research Institute

Last updated
Network Contagion Research Institute
AbbreviationNCRI
Formation2018;8 years ago (2018)
FounderJoel Finkelstein
Type Nonprofit research institute
82-3649399 (EIN) [1]
Legal status 501(c)(3) organization
Headquarters Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Affiliations Rutgers University
University of Maryland
Revenue$1.45 million (2023)
Expenses$1.6 million (2023)
Website networkcontagion.us OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) is an American advocacy organization focusing on violent extremism, disinformation, misinformation, and speech across social media platforms. [2] [3]

Contents

History

In 2018, Joel Finkelstein founded NCRI to track hate online. [4] Finkelstein had been a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). [5] [6] After founding the institute, Finkelstein began collaborating with John Farmer Jr., a former New Jersey attorney general and director of Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics and the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience. Farmer, who previously served as lead counsel to the 9/11 Commission, joined NCRI's leadership team. [4]

In 2019, NCRI and ADL established a "partnership" to combat "extremism and hate" on social media. [7]

Activities

NCRI's publications include reports on QAnon supporters, [8] militia/boogaloo movements, [4] [9] anarcho-socialist networks, [10] antisemitism, [11] racial supremacism, and other topics related to xenophobia. [12] [13] Other research areas include the study and prevention of sextortion, [14] and child sexual abuse. [15] In 2024, NCRI produced a report claiming that DEI programs increased workplace hostility and racial bias. [16]

NCRI has published reports on the dissemination of disinformation from state actors, including Iran, [17] Russia, [18] and China. [19]

In 2026, NCRI claimed that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) "acts as an unregistered foreign agent inside the United States" and "coordinates with hostile foreign states" to foment "domestic unrest". [20] As proof, NCRI claims that groups of DSA members have visited Venezuela, Cuba, or China "six" times in the past 6 years, including "self-organized" visits. [21] DSA has 100,000 members. [22] The House Ways and Means Committee invited NCRI to testify about "foreign influence" in American nonprofits, at a February 10th event titled "Unmasking Threats from Beijing and Beyond." [23] [24]

Reports

Anarcho-socialist networks

In Network-Enabled Anarchy: How Militant Anarcho-Socialist Networks Use Social Media to Instigate Widespread Violence Against Political Opponents and Law Enforcement (2020), NCRI assessed that the tactics employed by right-wing extremist groups were also present among left-wing extremist networks. [25] In 2021, Matthew Lyons of anti-fascist project Three Way Fight criticized NCRI for equating "anarcho-socialists" with the Boogaloo movement and the Jihadist groups. [26] Lyons criticized NCRI for blaming the riots after the George Floyd protests on "anarcho-syndicalist extremists" who "mobilize[d] lawlessness and violence". [26] Lyons labelled NCRI a "mouthpiece for the state security apparatus". [26] In 2020, media scholar Jack Bratich criticized NCRI for labelling domestic dissenters as violent threats. [27]

Funding

Its funders include George Soros's Open Society Foundations as well as the Charles Koch Foundation. [28] In 2024, Jack Poulson of the Disruption Network Institute found that NCRI is tightly tied to pro-Israel, anti-BDS organizations. In 2021, the NCRI was paid $335,000 by the anti-BDS Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), which conducts self-described "psychological warfare" on pro-BDS students using Blend AI. [29]

In 2022, Eran Teboul stated that his organization, anti-BDS Hetz for Israel, has privately raised funds for NCRI. [29] NCRI founder Joel Finkelstein is a director of Hetz. [29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Andrea Suozzo; Alec Glassford; Ash Ngu; Brandon Roberts (9 May 2013). "Network Contagion Research Institute - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica . Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  2. ↑ Johnson, Scott P. (2020). Political Assassins, Terrorists and Related Conspiracies in American History. McFarland & Company. ISBN   978-1-4766-4203-1.
  3. ↑ Spinney, Laura (2022) [23 July 2022]. "Going viral". New Scientist . Vol. 255, no. 3396. p. 43. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(22)01312-4.
  4. 1 2 3 Joung, Nina (2021). "How these researchers track viral outbreaks of online hate that lead to violence". PBS (published 16 March 2021). Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  5. ↑ Abunimah, Ali (28 January 2024). "What's behind Washington Post hit piece on EI?". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  6. ↑ MacLeod, Alan (20 February 2024). "NCRI Exposed: Israel Lobby-Linked Group Tied to Illegal Settlements and Campus Censorship". TheAltWorld. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  7. ↑ "ADL Partners with Network Contagion Research Institute to Study How Hate and Extremism Spread on Social Media". Network Contagion Research Institute. 13 March 2019. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024.
  8. ↑ "How to respond to the QAnon threat". Brookings. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  9. ↑ Thomson-DeVeaux, Amelia (4 September 2020). "How Trump And COVID-19 Have Reshaped The Modern Militia Movement". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  10. ↑ Kaur, Harmeet (16 September 2020). "Tactics employed by right-wing extremist groups are now being used by extremists on the left, report finds". CNN. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  11. ↑ Menn, Joseph (3 December 2022). "Surging Twitter antisemitism unites fringe, encourages violence, officials say". The Washington Post .
  12. ↑ "Rutgers Report Finds Increase in Anti-Hindu Disinformation". New Brunswick, NJ Patch. 13 July 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  13. ↑ "TikTok Shows Less 'Anti-China' Content Than Rivals, Study Finds". Bloomberg.com. 9 August 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  14. ↑ "Sextortion warning: In 6 hours, my son was dead". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  15. ↑ "Network Contagion Research Institute to host virtual panel on risks of financial sextortion". Police1. 14 April 2024. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  16. ↑ Zaki, Adam. "Study suggests DEI may escalate workplace hostility and racial bias". CFO.com. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  17. ↑ Bennett, Brian (7 June 2021). "Exclusive: Iran Steps up Efforts to Sow Discord Inside the U.S." TIME. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  18. ↑ Vanian, Jonathan. "Russian disinformation campaigns are trying to sow distrust of COVID vaccines, study finds". Fortune. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  19. ↑ Myrow, Rachael (8 August 2024). "TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government's Favor, Study Claims | KQED". www.kqed.org. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  20. ↑ Network Contagion Research Institute [@ncri_io] (9 February 2026). "NCRI assesses that the Democratic Socialists of America acts as an unregistered foreign agent inside the United States" (Tweet) – via Twitter. We assess that DSA coordinates with hostile foreign states through delegations and joint activity, receives undisclosed material support such as in-kind benefits and luxury travel, and fails to report this support on required tax filings. We further assess that DSA imports the narratives and tactics developed abroad into the United States and deploys them to drive protests against ICE, law enforcement, and other domestic institutions, creating a direct pipeline from foreign coordination to domestic unrest
  21. ↑ "Democratic Socialists of America: Policy, Advocacy and Narrative Convergence with Hostile Foreign States". Network Contagion Research Institute. 21 January 2026.
  22. ↑ Duhalde, David (9 February 2026). ""Movement Parties" and Democratic Socialists of America". Jacobin. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  23. ↑ "Far-left group with foreign ties undermining US under guise of protest, report warns". Fox News . 8 February 2026. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  24. ↑ "Report recommends investigation of Democratic Socialists of America for possible foreign agent activity". Jewish Insider. 9 February 2026. Archived from the original on 9 February 2026. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  25. ↑ Kaur, Harmeet (16 September 2020). "Tactics employed by right-wing extremist groups are now being used by extremists on the left, report finds". CNN. Retrieved 15 February 2026.
  26. 1 2 3 Lyons, Matthew (9 May 2021). "Network Contagion Research Institute: helping the state fight political infection left and right". PM Press .
  27. ↑ Bratich, Jack (11 November 2020). "Observation in a Surveilled World". In Cannella, Gaile S.; Giardina, Michael D.; Denzin, Norman K.; Lincoln, Yvonna S. (eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. SAGE Publications. p. 344. ISBN   978-1-4766-4203-1.
  28. ↑ "Violent memes and messages surging on far-left social media, a new report finds". The Washington Post. 14 September 2020. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 15 February 2026.
  29. 1 2 3 Poulson, Jack (28 November 2024). "Towards a Public Database for Investigating Western Special Operations" (PDF). Disruption Network Institute (published 28 November 2024). Corporate records and tax filings similarly demonstrate that ICC paid the Rutgers-affiliated Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) $335,000 in 2021 and that NCRI founder Joel Finkelstein is a director of a secretive Israeli anti-BDS organization named Hetz for Israel alongside the founder of Voices of Israel, Brig. Gen. (res.) Sima Vaknin-Gill, who was also previously the Israeli military's chief censor.
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