TOWARDS AN ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK FOR TWITTER INFLUENCERS IN BOKO HARAM DISCOURSE

ABSTRACT

Boko Haram is a deadly religious extremist group involved in acts of terrorism. Their operations in parts of West Africa for about a decade with no respite has triggered the need for an innovative approach to prevent further damage to the economies of affected countries. In this study, we focus on eliciting knowledge from discussions in Twitter about Boko Haram. Python programming language and Tweepy library were used to pull related tweets from Twitter, spanning seven days. The popular and top influencers discussing issues about Boko Haram based on their number of followers, their verified status, as well as the number of tweets liked by other users, are reported. The findings from this report will be a useful resource for security agencies battling Boko Haram and others affected by their operations. Available data show that news media are the most common verified Twitter influencers discussing issues of these terrorists. Notably, security agencies involved in the fight against the sect do not significantly engage with the public in Twitter. It was also shown that the number of followers is a vital metric in determining influencers. Future research may consider the use of all relevant features in determining Twitter influencers.

Keywords: Twitter Influencer, Followers, Boko Haram, Analytic Framework, Big Data