Megan Squire

Dr. Megan Squire is Deputy Director for Data Analytics and OSINT at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a former professor of Computer Science at Elon University. As a computer scientist, Dr. Squire applies techniques from data science and cybersecurity to track and expose networks of hate and extremism online. She is the author of two books on data cleaning and data mining, and over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including several Best Paper awards for her work tracking extremist online fundraising and cryptocurrency.

Latest Research

mass shooter videos

Digital Threat Report: Mass shooter videos

Videos created by perpetrators of mass shooting events are still widely available on social media and mainstream streaming services. (Read more at SPLC)

odysee

Digital Threat Report: Odysee

Odysee is a video streaming site with little to no content moderation, and provides a steady income stream for hate groups and extremists, including fugitives, some of whom are earning thousands of dollars each month peddling hateful or violent content on the site.(Read more at SPLC)

deplatforming

Bad Gateway: How Deplatforming Affects Extremist Websites (2022)

My work as a Belfer Fellow for ADL uncovers what happens after bad actors are removed from social media or other online environments. (Read more at ADL)

Monetizing Propaganda (2021)

🏆 Best paper award. How do right-wing extremists use video streaming to make money? This is a deep dive into the network of streamers and donors using the DLive service. (Conference, PDF)

telegram

The Pushshift Telegram Dataset (2020)

Describes our dataset of 27.8K channels and 317M messages from 2.2M unique users, designed to study social movements, protests, political extremism, and disinformation. (Read More on Arxiv)

pushshift

The Pushshift Reddit Dataset (2020)

Describes our dataset of Reddit's millions of subreddits, millions of users, and hundreds of millions of comments(Read More on Arxiv)

pb

Understanding Gray Networks using Social Media Data (2019)

🏆 Best paper runner-up. Is it possible to understand the structure of a clandestine network, for example Proud Boys, using just their social media trace data? (Read More)

fb

Radical Right-Wing Women on Facebook (2019)

At what rates and in what capacity do women participate in extreme far-right ("radical right") political online communities? (Read More)

ms

Anti-Muslim Hate Network on Facebook (2018)

How do anti-Muslim political groups use the Facebook social network to build their own online communities? Do they crossover with other far-right political ideologies, such as anti-immigrant or white nationalists? (Read More)

utr

Analyzing the "Summer of Hate" (2018)

How "united" is the far-right? Which groups share members? Which ideologies tend to attract the same people? Which groups are responsible for uniting such distinct far-right ideologies at an event like the Charlottesville rally? (Read more)

lx

Rudeness on Linux (2017)

How do the leaders of the Linux Kernel project write in email? What are the salient features of their writing, and can we discern one leader from another? (Read more)

Current Projects

Here are some long-term projects I'm working on that have not yet been published.

ci

Network and Text Analysis of Christian Identity Hate Groups

For this work we mine decades of Christian Identity historical documents to create a social network of key players. We then compare that to the current CI landscape on the social media platform Telegram.

Books

engines of mischief

Engines of Mischief: 1818-1819 (2024)

Role playing game and textbook covering the labor, economic, political, and social climate at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in Manchester, England.

mastering data mining with python

Mastering Data Mining with Python (2016)

Advanced techniques for finding patterns hidden in data, including social media data and text.

clean data

Clean Data (2015)

Practical, beginner-friendly technical guidance for how to produce high quality, analysis-ready data.

Articles

2024

Digital Threat Report: Mass Shooter Videos

Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. How the digital videos created by mass shooters persist on social media platforms, inspiring new crimes.

2023

Digital Threat Report: ODYSEE

Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. Why is the video streaming website "Odysee" a digital threat?

Q3 Crypto briefing

Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. Extremists Get Boost From Donor-Advised Funds, Bitcoin

Alex Jones: The Text Messages

6-part series for Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Michael Edison Hayden. February 1.

2022

'Unite the Right' 5 Years Later: Where Are They Now?

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Hannah Gais, Michael Edison Hayden, Cassie Miller and Jason Wilson

White Nationalist Book Publishers Revealed

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Hannah Gais, Jason Wilson, and Michael Edison Hayden. June 13.

Pro-Trump White Nationalist Group Facing Key Desertions

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Hannah Gais, and Michael Edison Hayden. June 2.

Alex Jones’ Bitcoin Fairy Drops $8 Million in a Month on Infowars

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Michael Edison Hayden. May 26.

Anonymous Donor Drops $2 Million in Bitcoin on Alex Jones

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Michael Edison Hayden. April 29.

Infowars Store Enjoyed Traffic Boost During 'Stop the Steal'

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Michael Edison Hayden. April 6.

AFPAC Co-Planner Led Crypto 'Solicitation Scheme'

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Michael Edison Hayden. March 29.

Far-Right Livestreamer Who Attended Capitol Insurrection Got Federal Pandemic Relief Funds

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Hannah Gais. February 24.

Prolific White Nationalist Personality Identified

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Jason Wilson. February 18.

One in Five Patriot Front Applicants Claim Military Ties

Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Jeff Tischauser and Michael Edison Hayden. February 1.

2021

Revealed: Startup Creates Streaming Platform for Extremists on Big-Tech Infrastructure.

Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Jason Wilson.

How Cryptocurrency Revolutionized the White Supremacist Movement

Analysis of donation patterns and habits of early adopters of crypto, including Stefan Molyneux, Greg Johnson, Andrew Anglin and others. For Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Michael Edison Hayden.

Infowars Director Bought Domain Named After Terrorist

Uncovering the network of tech workers keeping Infowars, America First, and Epik afloat. For Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Michael Edison Hayden and Hannah Gais.

Building a Network of Hate: Understanding the Right-Wing Extremist Podcast Ecosystem

Long-term study of 4000 episodes and 900 cast members on 18 different right-wing extremist podcasts. 4 parts. For Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Hannah Gais

Neo-Nazi's Bitcoin History Suggests Russian Darknet Link

Blockchain analysis project. For Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Michael Edison Hayden

Revealed: Startup Creates Streaming Platform for Extremists on Big-Tech Infrastructure

Another example of alt-tech infrastructure supporting extremism. For Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Jason Wilson

Mystery Donor Backing Pro-Trump Disinfo Troll With Bitcoin.

Tracking donations to peddlers of election disinformation. For Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Hannah Gais.

Funding Hate: How extremists like the ones who attacked the Capitol are making money off the internet

Summary of platforms and techniques enabling extremist fundraising. For Southern Poverty Law Center Techwatch. With Cassie Miller and Hannah Gais

How an Encrypted Messaging Platform is Changing Extremist Movements

The rise of Telegram as the preferred method of spreading white supremacist terror propaganda. For Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. With Hannah Gais.

2020

Why is Telegram so appealing to terror groups?

What are the key technical features that make the Telegram app so appealing to hate and terror groups? At Center for Analysis of the Radical Right

Alt-Tech & the radical right: part 2

Inside the radical right's video addiction: Moving from Youtube to DLive & Entropy. At Center for Analysis of the Radical Right

2019

Alt-Tech & the radical right: part 1

Why are radical right groups shifting to "alternative" tech? At Center for Analysis of the Radical Right

How Big Tech and Policymakers Miss the Mark When Fighting Online Extremism

Why is it still so easy to find violent white supremacist content online, even though social media companies keep claiming that they are working overtime to delete it? At Brookings Institution

Why the next terror manifesto will be even harder to track

It's difficult to track the spread of digital materials, and new technologies will make it even harder. At Salon and others for The Conversation

Podcast and video appearances

American Insurrection

PBS Frontline and ProPublica examine how far-right groups were emboldened and encouraged by former President Trump and how individuals were radicalized and brought into the political landscape (13:50 mark). April 2021.

BBC Click

Investigation of extremism in online gaming. (September, 2021)

TedX Talk

Outlines some basic data science techniques for studying extremism online. February, 2020 at Furman University.

Baseless

"Baseless", Sounds Like Hate

From the Southern Poverty Law Center

I help analyze "The Base", an international terrorist group plotting for a race war. Parts 1, 3, and 4. (October, 2020; May 2021)

I Dont Speak German Podcast

Digital vs Analog Analysis of Nazi Podcasts

From "I Don't Speak German" podcast, Ep. 56

We discuss data mining and network analysis of neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate, fascist, and other far-right extremist podcasts. (June, 2020)

Hate in the Homeland

"Hate in the Homeland", Reveal

From Reveal, The Center for Investigative Journalism, and PRX

We discuss the rise of "Alt-Tech" social media platforms that enable online extremism (June, 2019)

Media Coverage

I've discussed my work on political extremists and toxic online communities with numerous media outlets, including:

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2014

  • Hearsay Culture Radio Show #224. Radio interview, pre-recorded. KZSU Stanford University 90.1 FM. November 13. (Data Mining.)