EMILY LYNELL EDWARDS



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Digital Projects



Here you can find my current research project on the spread of far-right German and American Islamophobic digital communities on Twitter. Below is a gallery of Social Network Visualizations (SNA) produced using the open-source data visualization software Gephi drawing on Critical Digital Humanities and Feminist Data Science approaches.


All graphs depicted in the gallery are Name Network force-directed graphs using the Yifan-Hu proportional layout. Nodes represent individual Twitter users who are connected by edges. Nodes are sized by degree, the larger the node the more influential in the network. All nodes are partitioned by modularity class to reveal sub-communities within the network and are shown in different colors. ​


For my graphic design and digital archiving work scroll down!



Digital Islamophobia: The Spread of Far-Right Digital Networks



June 17, 2020



USA Graph



The #Islamization hashtag is used among supporters of the Nigerian Biafra independence movement to connect to the Christian right in the United States for visibility and aid in their national political cause.



April 7, 2020



USA Graph



This visualization represents two important patterns. Firstly, that far-right Indian Twitter users engage with the hashtag #Islamization as a means to comment and racialize the presence of Muslim communities in India, and secondly, that Indian-Americans such as @NetizenParo serve as conversational centers for Islamophobic discourse among other alt-right American users.



June 5, 2020



German Graph



This graph represents the way in which far-right Twitter networks in Germany, while including many types of Twitter users, center around far-right influencers in the form of established journalists, politicians, or institutional actors. In the case of far-right German, Islamophobic networked Twitter publics the origin source of conservations begins with institutionalized actors—such as verified Twitter accounts or news sites—with everyday users amplifying the content.



July 4, 2020



USA Graph



This graph presents a complex assortment of interlinking themes all correlated under the grammar of #Islamization connecting pro-Biafra and Christian Nigerian Twitter users to the former Trump administration as they sought to critique what they viewed as trend of "Islamization" in Nigerian society.



May 8, 2020



German Graph



German far-right users respond to, modify, and appropriate Tweets and news stories on Twitter to further their own ideological aims. This graph shows the centrality of @jouwatch and @fdp as major nodes within the network as both origin sites of (mis)information and accurate content that is re-appropriated.



April 7, 2020



German Graph



The scattered nature of this networked community demonstrates both the ubiquity of Islamophobic hate-speech among German users and illustrates the challenges of content moderation. If (mis)information and hate-speech are centered around certain high-profile network actors, then account suspension may address the problem. When Islamophobic hate-speech is organic, diffuse, and fragmented on platforms such as Twitter it may become more difficult to identify and address.



Digital Archiving



In addition to all of these fun things, I'm also a digital archivist!

Check out my digital exhibition of materials related to the Latino/a/x Issues Conference (LIC) at Bowling Green State University.



Made with Flourish




Brooklyn, NY



Emily Lynell Edwards, PhD