The Invisible Sisters – Actors on TikTok and Instagram in the spectrum of extremism, Salafism, Islamism and activism

Issue 11 / 2023 The importance of Social Media for Salafist-Islamist-extremist ecosystems is well-known. In how far women are part of the ecosystem and in what way they take part in its activities is less known. Issue 11 of the series “Schriftenreihe” thus looks at Social Media posts by women on Instagram and TikTok. The first part of the publication focuses on challenges with categorizing accounts by women – e.g. as extremist, Islamist, Salafist, or simply activist – or as belonging to none of those. This section also discusses potential critieria that could be used for categorizing accounts. In the second part of the publication, content that has been identified as (broadly) meeting the criteria for Salafism, Islamism and activism are analyzed in detail, especially with regards to formats used. Whether we can speak of an “online-behaviour” specific to women belonging to the ecosystem is what the last section is dedicated to.