​​Dark Web Forum, By Language (English First)


ENGLISH

  • Ansar1 - An English-language forum. Dates: 12/8/2008 - 1/20/2010; Posts: 29,492; Threads: 11,244; Members: 382. Zip file: 15 MB zipped, 52 MB unzipped.
  • Gawaher- An English language Islamic forum dedicated to discussions of issues pertaining to the Islamic world and Islam. Some forum members sympathize with radical Islamic groups. Dates: 10/24/2004 - 6/7/2012; Posts: 372,499; Threads: 53,235; Members: 9,269 Zip file; 114 MB unzipped, 374 MB unzipped.
  • Islamic Awakening - An English language Islamic forum with members based in the UK and other countries. Dates: 4/28/2004 - 5/22/2012; Posts: 201,287; Threads: 32,879; Members: 3,964. Zip file; 69 MB zipped, 202 MB unzipped.
  • Islamic Network - An English-language forum dedicated to various topics of interest to Muslims, ranging from theology to discussions of recent world events. Some registered members sympathize with and support terrorist organizations. Dates: 6/9/2004 - 11/10/2010; Posts: 91,874; Threads: 13,995; Members: 2,082. Zip file; 25.8 MB zipped, 80 MB unzipped.
  • Myiwc- No description available. Date: 11/5/2000 - 2/19/2010. Posts: 25,016; Threads: 6,310; Members: 756. Zip file: 17.68 MB zipped;  53.14 MB unzipped. 
  • Turn to Islam - As announced on the homepage of the forum, this is an English language forum with the goal of "correcting the common misconceptions about Islam". Radical participants may occasionally display their support for fundamentalist militant groups. Dates: 6/2/2006 - 5/20/2013; Posts: 335,338; Threads: 41,654; Members: 10,858. Zip file; 101.8 zipped, 305 MB unzipped.​
  • Ummah- No description available. Date: 4/1/2002 - 5/18/2012. Posts: 1,491,957; Threads: 91,527; Members: 21,013. Zip file: 312.68 MB zipped;  1.02 GB unzipped. 



ARABIC

  • AlFaloja - No description available. Zip file: 183 MB zipped; 751 MB unzipped.
  • Al-Boraq - This Arabic forum was established in May 2007 as an affiliation of the Jihad and Reform Front, an umbrella organization consisting of the Islamic Army in Iraq and other groups. Much of the forum is closed to unregistered users, but parts are open to public viewing, including an English-language section. Dates: 1/8/2006 - 5/17/2012. Posts: 302,235; Threads: 74,719; Members: 4,101. Zip file; 130 MB zipped, 541 MB unzipped.
  • Al-Firdaws - A general Arabic forum with subsections containing discussions of Islamic ideologies and generally supporting Jihadi organizations. Dates: 1/2/2005 - 12/6/2007; Posts: 39,715; Threads: 9,359; Members: 2,187. Zip file;  15 MB zipped, 71 MB unzipped.
  • Almedad - No description available. Date: 3/18/2006 - 9/17/2010. Posts: 40,248; Threads: 11,587; Members: 1,685. Zip file: 35 MB zipped, 142 MB unzipped.
  • Alokab - No description available. Dates: 4/8/2005 - 3/27/2012. Posts: 155,854; Threads: 22,049; Members: 2,041. Zip file: 84 MB zipped, 327 MB unzipped.
  • Al-Qimmah - No description available. Dates: 11/23/2007 - 3/28/2012. Posts: 34,402; Threads: 17,389; Members: 406. Zip file: 40 MB zipped, 141 MB unzipped.
  • Alsayra- An Arabic forum associated with the Sayra online newspaper; some members of the forum sympathize with the causes of more extremist Islamist groups. Dates: 4/5/2001 - 5/1/2012; Posts: 1,377,580; Threads: 174,493; Members: 78,979. Zip file; 281 MB zipped, 1.1 GB unzipped.
  • Ana al-Muslim - Created in 1996, this popular Arabic forum is one of the oldest Salafi forums. It is more Salafi than jihadi and covers a wide variety of viewpoints, but it has been used by al-Qa’ida. Dates:1/1/2006 - 6/14/2012; Posts: 2,125,656; Threads: 259,322; Members: 13,590. Zip file; 679 MB zipped, 2.8 GB unzipped.
  • AsAnsar - No description available. Date: 11/7/2008 - 5/18/2012. Posts: 269,548; Threads: 50,238; Members: 5,034. Zip file; 111 MB zipped, 454 MB unzipped.
  • Atahadi - No description available. Date: 4/14/2008 - 1/20/2010. Posts: 5,484; Threads: 2,619; Members: 322. Zip file: 1.72 MB zipped; 12.21 MB unzipped.  
  • Hanein - No description available. Date: 11/27/2006 - 5/17/2012. Posts: 990,287; Threads: 125,581; Members: 3,223. Zip file: 252 MB zipped;  1.15 GB unzipped.  
  • Hawaa - No description available. Date: 1/1/2001 - 5/16/2012. Posts: 3,598,871; Threads: 82,753; Members: 164,321. Zip file: 456.5 MB zipped;  1.83 GB unzipped.  
  • Hdrmut - No description available. Date: 11/25/2000 - 5/24/2012. Posts: 1,948,447; Threads: 172,185; Members: 34,604. Zip file: 158.13 MB zipped;  749.4 MB unzipped. 
  • M3f - No description available. Date: 7/29/2007 - 10/4/2010. Posts: 60,147; Threads: 16,685; Members: 1,903. Zip file: 27 MB zipped;  120 MB unzipped. 
  • Montada- A general Arabic forum from the Gulf region. Discussions cover a wide range of diverse topics such as supporting Islamist militants and computer software. Dates: 9/25/2000 - 6/5/2012. Posts: 1,865,807. Threads: 174,050. Members: 52,546. Zip file;  334 MB zipped, 1.3 GB unzipped.
  • Shamikh- No description available. Date: 3/21/2007 - 2/12/2010. Posts: 299,956; Threads: 48,472; Members: 4,059. Zip file: 98.57 MB zipped;  427.44 MB unzipped.​


​

FRENCH

  • Alminhadj - No description available. Dates: 6/1/2008 - 6/17/2012. Posts: 9,390; Threads:  3,241; Members:  497. Zip file: 3 MB zipped; 8 MB unzipped.
  • Forums d'aslama  - A French language Islamic forum for sharing, teaching and living the religion of Islam. Dates: 10/6/2004 - 6/1/2012; Posts: 131,108; Threads: 20,648; Members: 2,875. Zip file; 42.6 MB zipped; 133 MB unzipped.
  • Ribaat - No description available. Date: 5/5/2002 - 3/27/2009. Posts: 72,140; Threads: 7,905 ; Members: 3,198. Zip file: 33.38 MB zipped;  104 MB unzipped.​



GERMAN

  • Ansar Al-Dschihad Network -  The German site of Ansar AlJihad Network that is popular with Western jihadists and provides invitation-only sections. Dates: 2/27/2009 - 1/19/2010; Posts: 1,768; Threads: 766; Members: 71. Zip file; 1.3 MB zipped;  52 MB unzipped.



RUSSIAN

  • KavazChat - This Russian-language forum focuses on jihad in the North Caucasus. It includes a cyberwarfare section that supports the Ansar cyber unit with cyber attacks. Dates: 3/21/2003; Posts: 699,981; Threads: 16,854; Members: 7,125. Zip files; 156.7 MB zipped;  647 MB unzipped.​

Forums are organized by primary language:  English, Arabic, French, German, and Russian. The twenty-eight forums were collected up through 2012 by the Artificial Intelligence Lab to support its Dark Web project on the study of international Jihadi social media and movement; forums from its GeoPolitical Web project on the study of countries at risk.  Each collection contains up to millions of postings written by thousands of forum members.  Postings are organized into threads which generally indicate the topic under discussion.  Each posting includes detailed metadata such as date, member name, etc. The list below provides additional information about each forum as well as links to the forums themselves.  Each forum is provided as a downloadable compressed text file which may then be opened in any CSV-compatible text processing program. Sizes are approximate. To download, click on the name of the forum and choose to open or save the file when prompted by your browser.  

Dark Web Forums

 

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