MIT Researchers Create Website to Visualize Hillary Clinton’s Leaked Emails

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have analyzed tens of thousands of Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails with the use of online technology that visualizes users’ email networks, giving anyone the opportunity to explore the ex-Secretary of State’s path to presidential candidacy.

The project, developed by MIT’s Media Lab Macro Connections team, presents three visualized networks, based on WikiLeaks’ information dumps on Clinton, her campaign manager John Podesta the Democratic National Committee.

The networks contain a huge amount of metadata regarding over 70,000 leaked emails. It includes, for instance, a list of their contacts and the number of sent and received emails.

Each network on the site is presented in the form of circles that mark people and lines that show links between them. The color and size of circles show the contact frequency between collaborators over the time.

A screenshot from ClintonCircle website

The site grants anyone the opportunity to search through Clinton’s email history, learning her inner circle and the contents of controversial communications.

To build the networks the researchers used a web tool developed in 2013 to visualize and analyze networks created by users through email interactions. Called Immersion, the tool’s stated aim was to “improve people’s ability to understand and explore data.”

New WikiLeaks dumps are continuing to emerge. On Thursday, the whistleblowing publisher released the 28th batch of emails linked to John Podesta, long standing aide of the Clinton family.

And the MIT team is working to update their outlet with new data. The last leak was added to the site October 30, according to the project developers.