myAIPMAre discussions on online extremist forums driven by a small proportion of individuals, or are they akin to more egalitarian deliberative spaces? In other words, what type of influence is at play in these forums: that of a minority converting the masses or that of a majority whose views are so identical that they create compliance to shared norms? Is there even one single participation structure and dominant form of influence common to all extremist forums? As extremist online ecosystems – including those pertaining to Salafi-Jihadist, the far-right, and misogynistic ideologies – continue to grow apace and regularly underpin episodes of lethal violence, answering the question of the participation structure(s) of radical forums, and its (their) correlated type(s) of influence, has become critical for security and intelligence practitioners and scholars of terrorism alike.
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