Rochester Institute of Technology graduates beat teams from Belgium and Azerbaijan yesterday in a U.S. State Department competition looking for ways to challenge terrorist groups online.
The Islamic State group has been particularly effective in using social media to spread its message and radicalize young Muslims. The State Department challenged teams of researchers to counter their web campaigns.
A 17-member RIT social marketing team came up with “Ex-Out Extremism,” a site that individuals looking up radical sites will be led to, and which encourages them to click off extremist sites.