Feds give Michigan State $585,000 to study ‘far right’ social media use

Feds give Michigan State $585,000 to study ‘far right’ social media use:
"Even as Americans today celebrate the temporary expiration of the Patriot Act, plans are underway by the feds to increase monitoring of Internet activity.

The Department of Justice recently awarded Michigan State University a $585,719 grant to study  “far-right” groups’ social media use, an effort aimed at battling violent extremism, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

The grant summary states:

There is currently limited knowledge of the role of technology and computer mediated communications (CMCs), such as Facebook and Twitter, in the dissemination of messages that promote extremist agendas and radicalize individuals to violence.

The proposed study will address this gap through a series of qualitative and quantitative analyses of posts from various forms of CMC used by members of both the far-right and Islamic extremist movements..."