Network Contagion Research Institute

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) is an American organization dedicated to identifying and predicting the spread of ideologically motivated threats (e.g. hate groups), disinformation, and misinformation across social media platforms and physical spaces.^[2][3]

Network Contagion Research Institute

Abbreviation	NCRI
Formation	2018; 7 years ago (2018)
Founder	Joel Finkelstein
Type	Nonprofit research institute
Tax ID no.	82-3649399 (EIN)[1]
Legal status	501(c)(3) organization
Headquarters	Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Affiliations	Rutgers University
Revenue	$1.45 million (2023)
Expenses	$1.6 million (2023)
Website	networkcontagion.us

History

The NCRI was founded in 2018 as a nonprofit organization by psychologist and neuroscientist Joel Finkelstein.^[4] After its founding, Finkelstein began collaborating with experts in the field of political violence, including John Farmer Jr., a former New Jersey attorney general and director of Rutgers' Eagleton Institute of Politics and the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience. Farmer, who previously served as lead counsel for the 9/11 Commission, joined the NCRI's leadership team, and since then, NCRI has produced numerous report on the spread of political extremism and its link to violent outcomes.^[4]

Research focus

Examples of NCRI's research include reports on QAnon supporters,^[5] militia/boogaloo movements,^[4][6] anarcho-socialist networks,^[7] antisemitism,^[8] racial supremacism, and other topics related to xenophobia.^[9][10] The institute has also conducted studies on the dissemination of disinformation and bias from state actors, including Iran,^[11] Russia,^[12] and China.^[13]

Other research areas include the study and prevention of sextortion,^[14] child sexual abuse,^[15] and the negative consequences of DEI programs, such as workplace hostility and racial bias.^[16]

Concerns

Media scholar Jack Bratich has criticized the NCRI for a lack of neutrality, accusing it of being used to target domestic dissenters labelled as threats.^[17] In 2021, the NCRI was criticized by Matthew Lyons of the anti-fascist project Three Way Fight for equating undesirable political views on the left and right, particularly in the wake of the George Floyd protests and for allegedly aligning with state security interests.^[18]

In a public lecture on May 13, 2022, Hetz CEO Eran Teboul stated that the organization has privately raised funds for NCRI, during an event hosted by the Norwegian nonprofit Med Israel for fred (MIFF).^[19]

See also

• Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
• International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)
• Charles Koch Foundation (CKF)
• Open Society Foundations (OSF)