Network Contagion Research Institute

What guides our work: The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) is an independent, nonpartisan research center that investigates manipulation, coordinated and foreign influence operations, and harms to children. Our work is cited by Congress, federal agencies, universities, and journalists across the spectrum because our commitment is singular: follow the data, not the politics. On accusations that NCRI serves ADL, the UN, Soros, or any political faction: We have published research in major national publications that ADL’s DEI-style methodologies can increase hate. That they have irresponsibly distorted risk assessments, and have even promoted left-wing extremists. - We have published findings in major national publications on UN bodies misrepresenting or manipulating conflict data for political reasons. - We have exposed how left-leaning populations in the U.S. now endorse political violence and assassination against Donald Trump, evidence cited by the current Director of National Intelligence. - Our research has also documented anti-American, foreign, and authoritarian information operations. This is not the behavior of an organization who has any partisan leanings. It is the behavior of analysts who answer only to the evidence in the interest of protecting American values. The claim that NCRI collaborates, serves, or works with the ADL, Open Society, or (fill in the blank) collapses under even minimal scrutiny. The claims are designed to smear the messenger rather than ask: Is the message itself true? NCRI has publicly contradicted and critiqued each of the above institutions when the data required it. Citations below. How we work: - Transparent, replicable methods - Open data whenever security permits - Peer-reviewed analytic techniques in computational social science - No political or donor direction - No advocacy agenda. - Just analysis, evidence, and accountability. We understand that our findings will make different groups uncomfortable at different times. That is unavoidable when you tell empirical truths in a polarized era. But personal attacks do not change the data. NCRI will continue to follow the evidence wherever it goes—without fear or favor. On early funding: Soon after NCRI’s launch in 2018, in an attempt to show that organizations that would typically disagree would find common ground on data-driven evidence, we did collaborate on projects that involved the ADL, Open Society, and Koch Foundation. Following these early collaborations in 2018, we never worked with these organizations again. And, as noted above, we have always followed the data, often at the expense of these very organizations. These early grants have never influenced our governance, our methods, or our research agenda. Today, NCRI is supported by an entirely different donor base and is fully independent. RECEIPTS: Examples of NCRI Independence Work contradicting and challenging ADL & DEI frameworks DEI as a Driver of Hate — Showing how DEI-trained environments increased antisemitic attitudes and hostility LINK: foxnews.com/politics/new-s… ADL Methodology Exposed — Demonstrating how risk frameworks amplified antisemitism LINK: thefp.com/p/is-the-adl-i… Work challenging UN bodies UN Famine Monitoring Failures — Analysis exposing methodological distortions to undermine the United States’ efforts at humanitarian aid. LINK: dailywire.com/news/how-the-u… Work exposing left-wing extremism & violence encouraging networks Assassination Culture Report — Documenting endorsement of political violence, including calls for violence against Trump LINK: foxnews.com/us/new-bombshe… Rising Hate on the Left — Findings showing radicalized antifa ecosystems during the BLM riots. LINK: cnn.com/2020/09/16/us/…

🚨 Foreign Money Built It. Taxpayers Fund It: Adam Sohn Lays Out the Case Against CAIR Before Congress This was testimony today at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing by Adam Sohn, co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute @ncri_io Sohn argued the nonprofit sector depends on public trust—helping make the country “healthier, safer, and stronger without being taxed to do so.” But he warned the system is being exploited: nonprofits were never meant to “organize street violence… or serve as proxies for foreign governments.” His first case study was CAIR. Sohn said CAIR affiliates acknowledged receiving millions from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait—without registering under foreign agent laws—and that since 2022, taxpayers have largely replaced those donors. He pointed to CAIR California’s public grants: nearly $30 million total, including $7.2 million in federal funds for Afghan refugees. Sohn said CAIR promised 1,800 served but delivered 177, while millions still moved—over $3.7 million back into CAIR’s offices. Sohn also alleged a signed statement to Congress denying CAIR’s control over the grant “appears to be false,” citing grant documents naming CAIR California as administrator—what he called a “material misrepresentation to Congress.” “This is what nonprofit capture looks like when it matures. Foreign money builds the network, taxpayers unknowingly keep it alive, and civil society bears the cost.”

NCRI assesses that the Democratic Socialists of America acts as an unregistered foreign agent inside the United States. 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

Nick Fuentes’s rise was not organic. NCRI data show he directly cultivated and participated in coordinated raids that foreign engagement farms and anonymous accounts then amplified to distort his reach. There is a real audience behind him, but the scale you see online is a manufactured ecosystem, not genuine momentum.

@Notwithsitting @PamelaParesky @PsychToday Our data supports that argument experimentally. Identity when discussed factually and dispassionately did not have the same impact, an important control condition.

@PamelaParesky @ncri_io @PsychToday Identity framing doesnt necessarily cause these division its only when its done through a critical theory re-imagining of marxist conflict theory by assigning groups oppressor and oppressed labels. discarding traditional liberal values of equality and adopting equity.

“For decades, institutions have poured billions into programs designed to fight racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, caste discrimination, and other forms of bias... @ncri_io sought to understand the effects of the way we teach about identity-based harm.” My latest for @PsychToday

X’s great unmasking of account location is a monumental step toward online transparency. And it reminds us that in a borderless online world, digital borders matter.

@manoelribeiro @YADodeles @Ugo_alves @jonathanstray *less useful

I think @manoelribeiro's point is that there are underlying assumptions about user composition that normally factor into algorithmic amplification. A smart algorithm can determine what kinds of users (narrow block vs wider sample) are liking specific kind of content and amplify based on likelihood estimates for saturation. By no means does this make what you have done less useless, but the caveat is important.

Our new research suggests TikTok’s algorithm systematically boosts pro-Mamdani and anti-Cuomo content in NYC’s mayoral race. This analysis was done by Spring AI. the company uncovers the hidden mechanics of social media algorithms to defend democracies from weaponized AI. 🧵

I agree with you about the republican piece Jay. Spring has gone a bit further in their sampling method to manufacture a more reasonable prognostic than that here. As we understand from their paper, they have a variable that assesses against different user histories. This is probably imperfect. But it strikes me, methodologically, as a non marginal improvement in the claim integrity.

Look, I'm afraid I have to tap the sign again. Last time someone looked at this, TikTok was found to "boost" Republican content. This time, the opposite. But what does it mean for an algorithm to "boost" content? What about what the users are doing? doomscrollingbabel.manoel.xyz/p/does-tiktok-…

@McCormickProf Glad to have your voice out there

Natural law, natural rights, and the common good: some reflections. america250.aei.org/volume/natural…

FYI: The pro-Hamas “People’s Conference for Palestine” domain is registered to The People’s Forum, a NY-based “movement incubator” largely funded by Roy Neville Singham — a China-based billionaire under congressional investigation for potential CCP ties.

@RecordedFuture 🫡

@ncri_io Thanks for the share!

Incredible work by @RecordedFuture here. Please give it a listen.

Two weeks ago, I noticed something strange: the same emaciated toddler in Gaza that The New York Times had put on its front page had also appeared in nearly every mainstream outlet. Different news organizations, different photographers, same boy. So I did something no one else bothered to do: I ran the children’s names through Google Translate and combed Arabic media. What @TanyaLukyanova_ and I found is that nearly every image told the same story: these were kids with cystic fibrosis, rickets, or other serious ailments used by mainstream media to give the false impression of a famine.

Proud to share that @PoliceOne has featured Narravance’s latest report, “Escalating Anti-ICE Rhetoric and Real-World Threat Convergence,” uncovers how viral social media campaigns, activist doxxing sites, and coordinated digital narratives.

An investigation by @BILD reveals that a staggering percentage of images coming out of Gaza are staged by Hamas-aligned photographers and sold to Western media outlets. This builds on @ncri_io's earlier report exposing the media’s heavy, undisclosed reliance on Hamas-linked sources in Gaza coverage. As this pattern persists, here’s a critical refresher on NCRI’s findings and how Hamas-sourced content continues to shape Western perception. A thread: 🧵

These emails and invoices are from the Press TV Files, much of which are in Persian and were released on Telegram in 2022 by a self-described hacktivist group called Black Reward. The files were later archived by DDoSecrets, and their existence was previously reported by The Washington Post.

Why did Reuters continue a business relationship with a broadcaster who targeted a Thompson Reuters Foundation Employee? Has this relationship impacted how Reuters covers Iran, IRIB, Press TV, or the Middle East more broadly?

Reuters supplied nearly $4 million worth of news services—including text, video, and photos—to IRIB and its subsidiary Press TV, U.S.-sanctioned state media arms linked to Iran’s IRGC and known for broadcasting forced confessions and regime propaganda. Reuters communicated payment requests directly with Peyman Jebelli, a senior IRIB executive with close ties to Ayatollah Khamenei and a key figure in Iran’s global information warfare strategy. 🧵