 | |
| Abbreviation | NCRI |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2018 |
| Founder | Joel Finkelstein |
| Type | Nonprofit research institute |
| 82-3649399 (EIN) [1] | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) organization |
| Headquarters | Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Affiliations | Rutgers University |
| Revenue | $1.45 million (2023) |
| Expenses | $1.6 million (2023) |
| Website | networkcontagion |
The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) is an American advocacy organization focusing on hate groups, disinformation, misinformation, and speech across social media platforms. [2] [3]
The NCRI was founded in 2018 as a nonprofit organization by psychologist and neuroscientist Joel Finkelstein. [4] . [4] Examples of NCRI's publications include reports on QAnon supporters, [5] militia/boogaloo movements, [4] [6] anarcho-socialist networks, [7] antisemitism, [8] racial supremacism, and other topics related to xenophobia. [9] [10] The institute has also published articles on the dissemination of disinformation and bias from state actors, including Iran, [11] Russia, [12] and China. [13]
Other research areas include the study and prevention of sextortion, [14] child sexual abuse, [15] and the negative consequences of DEI programs, such as workplace hostility and racial bias. [16]
Media scholar Jack Bratich has criticized the NCRI for a lack of neutrality, accusing it of being used to target domestic dissenters labelled as threats. [17] In 2021, the NCRI was criticized by Matthew Lyons of the anti-fascist project Three Way Fight for equating undesirable political views on the left and right, particularly in the wake of the George Floyd protests and for allegedly aligning with state security interests. [18]
Disruption Network Institute found corporate records and tax filings showing that the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) paid the NCRI $335,000 in 2021. [19]
In a public lecture on May 13, 2022, Hetz CEO Eran Teboul stated that the organization has privately raised funds for NCRI, during an event hosted by the Norwegian nonprofit Med Israel for fred (MIFF). [20]
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 alongside the founder of Voices of Israel, Brig. Gen. (res.) Sima Vaknin-Gill, who was also previously the Israeli military's chief censor.
