Network Contagion Research Institute
American advocacy organization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) is an American advocacy organization focusing on violent extremism, disinformation, misinformation, and speech across social media platforms.[2][3]
| |
| 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 University of Maryland |
| Revenue | $1.45 million (2023) |
| Expenses | $1.6 million (2023) |
| Website | networkcontagion |
History
In 2018, Joel Finkelstein founded NCRI to track hate online.[4] Finkelstein had been a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).[5][6] After founding the institute, Finkelstein began collaborating with John Farmer Jr., a former New Jersey attorney general and director of Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics and the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience. Farmer, who previously served as lead counsel to the 9/11 Commission, joined NCRI's leadership team.[4]
In 2019, NCRI and ADL established a "partnership" to combat "extremism and hate" on social media.[7]
Activities
NCRI's publications include reports on QAnon supporters,[8] militia/boogaloo movements,[4][9] anarcho-socialist networks,[10] antisemitism,[11] racial supremacism, and other topics related to xenophobia.[12][13] Other research areas include the study and prevention of sextortion,[14] and child sexual abuse.[15] In 2024, NCRI produced a report claiming that DEI programs increased workplace hostility and racial bias.[16]
NCRI has published reports on the dissemination of disinformation from state actors, including Iran,[17] Russia,[18] and China.[19]
In 2026, NCRI claimed that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) "acts as an unregistered foreign agent inside the United States" and "coordinates with hostile foreign states" to foment "domestic unrest".[20] As proof, NCRI claims that groups of DSA members have visited Venezuela, Cuba, or China "six" times in the past 6 years, including "self-organized" visits.[21] DSA has 100,000 members.[22] The House Ways and Means Committee invited NCRI to testify about "foreign influence" in American nonprofits, at a February 10th event titled "Unmasking Threats from Beijing and Beyond."[23][24]
Reports
Anarcho-socialist networks
In Network-Enabled Anarchy: How Militant Anarcho-Socialist Networks Use Social Media to Instigate Widespread Violence Against Political Opponents and Law Enforcement (2020), NCRI assessed that the tactics employed by right-wing extremist groups were also present among left-wing extremist networks.[25] In 2021, Matthew Lyons of anti-fascist project Three Way Fight criticized NCRI for equating "anarcho-socialists" with the Boogaloo movement and the Jihadist groups.[26] Lyons criticized NCRI for blaming the riots after the George Floyd protests on "anarcho-syndicalist extremists" who "mobilize[d] lawlessness and violence".[26] Lyons labelled NCRI a "mouthpiece for the state security apparatus".[26] In 2020, media scholar Jack Bratich criticized NCRI for labelling domestic dissenters as violent threats.[27]
Funding
Its funders include George Soros's Open Society Foundations as well as the Charles Koch Foundation.[28] In 2024, Jack Poulson of the Disruption Network Institute found that NCRI is tightly tied to pro-Israel, anti-BDS organizations. In 2021, the NCRI was paid $335,000 by the anti-BDS Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), which conducts self-described "psychological warfare" on pro-BDS students using Blend AI.[29]
In 2022, Eran Teboul stated that his organization, anti-BDS Hetz for Israel, has privately raised funds for NCRI.[29] NCRI founder Joel Finkelstein is a director of Hetz.[29]