• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, December 1, 2015

While it’s safe to say this is not an endorsement Twitter has been looking for, the micro-blogging service is the clear favorite among Islamic State supporters in the U.S., according to a new study by the George Washington University Program on Extremism, which analyzed the activities of 71 people arrested on charges of supporting the terror group in the last year, as well as 300 more currently moving in the terrorist online milieu.

The report noted: “American ISIS activists and sympathizers are active on a variety of platforms, from open forums like Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr to more discrete messaging applications such as Kik, Telegram, surespot, and the dark web. But Twitter is by far the platform of choice of this informal echo chamber.”

However, the study also noted that social media isn’t the only channel for ISIS supporters to communicate with each other: many suspects opted for face-to-face meetings in small groups, probably due to concern over online surveillance. Furthermore, many of these suspects already knew each other through pre-existing contacts, meaning social media didn’t wasn’t necessarily integral in the formation of terrorist networks, although it played a role in enabling them to communicate.

The study found that terrorism suspects, in addition to being active on social media, are trending younger than previous terrorism defendants, with an average age of 26, ranging from 15 to 47. 86% are men. Most of the defendants were organizing themselves in small cells, often with the help of social media, to go abroad or attack targets in the U.S.

Currently there are “several thousand” people openly supporting ISIS on Twitter or consuming ISIS propaganda online in the U.S. according to U.S. authorities, although their activities don’t necessarily go beyond rhetorical expressions, and therefore don’t reach the level of criminal conspiracy.

Twitter has made clear its willingness to cooperate with authorities to combat terrorism and other forms of violence and criminal activity. On that note, the company revealed that is received over 2,400 requests for information from U.S. law enforcement in the first half of 2015, according to the company, but it’s not clear how many of these were actually related to terrorism or supporters.

The company also takes down numerous accounts maintained by ISIS supporters, but it’s very easy for these users to establish a new account under a new name. The supporters also use tactics like “shout outs,” or tweets announcing the return of blocked members, to quickly rebuild the community.