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New Article Draft[edit]

The Usage of Social Media by Islamic State

Background

In order to understand the relationship between social media and terrorism in general, we need to first understand terrorism. Terrorism uses violence as a means to create terror or fear in order to achieve political aim. The reason why terrorists always make their crime public is because they wish to send out a message to people, they wish to terrorize them into submission. With new technologies like social media emerging these years, terrorism are becoming “popular” as well. 

The Islamic State also known as ISIS, ISIL, and the Daesh has become an islamic terrorist organization that is know for it’s social media recruitment effort. The group has utilized many forms of provocative online media such as websites, social media platforms, and online magazines/flyers as a method of recruiting followers internationally. They have garnered a strong following through this platform and they have recruited followers from western countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. (Citation) All of these efforts has been through the transmission of radical imagery and extremist islamic ideology via social media.

Corporate Social Media Platform Usage

In 2013-2014, the organization primarily used the mainstream platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram. During 2014, there was an estimated 46,000-90,000 Twitter accounts that advocated for ISIS or were run by supporters of the movement. (Citation 7) In 2015, Twitter was able to ban 125,000 ISIS sympathetic accounts. (Citation Article 2) ISIS utilized a technique called “Jihadist Follow Friday” to encourage their users to follow new ISIS sympathetic accounts each Friday. (Citation 8) To signify this, they used many hashtags in arabic such as: #theFridayofSupportingISIS. This allowed them to gain followers each week and to promote their community and message on a weekly basis. (Citation 7)

After these accounts are banned, ISIS supporters often create new accounts to replace the ones that were previously suspended. Twitter defines those who recreate accounts as “resurgents” and explains that these are often difficult accounts to remove completely, since they tend to pop back up in an alternate form. It is estimated that approximately 20% of all ISIS affiliated Twitter accounts can be traced back to fake accounts created by the same user. Many of these accounts are traced back to the “Baqiya family” which is an online network of thousands of ISIS followers. (Citation Article 8) During important ISIS military victories,  Many of these accounts are traced back to the “Baqiya family” which is an online network of thousands of ISIS followers. [8] During important ISIS military victories, there was a sudden surge of tweets. During the ISIS march on Mosul, there was about 42,000 tweets on Twitter supporting the invasion.

Further, an encrypted messaging platform called Telegram banned dozens of pro-ISIS channels.

The particular videos that ISIS often posts include executions of “enemies of the Caliphate” which often consists of westerners or Jordanian nationals. Most infamously, an executioner named Jihadi John was seen in many of these videos prior to his death in 2017. (Citation) 

However, as the November 2015 attacks in Paris demonstrate, IS also uses old-fashioned methods of communication and propaganda. Lewis notes that the attacks in Paris represent the sort of 'propaganda in action' which was a method developed by the 19th century anarchists in Europe. The November 2015 IS attacks were perpetrated without prior warning, largely because the operatives met face-to-face and used other non-digital means of communication. Additionally, it is common for ISIS to claim responsibility of many terror attacks around the world such as the Paris Attacks, the Florida night club shooting, and the Las Vegas attack. (Citation)

Usage of the Dark Web

Since ISIS’s activities on the surface web are now being monitored closely, the jihadists are forced to look for new online safe havens, the Dark Web became the perfect alternative as it is inaccessible to most but navigable for the initiated few, and it is completely anonymous. (Bertrand, 2015) ISIS published a variety of content on the dark web as well as their own internally generated platforms. 

In response to corporate social media platforms banning their accounts, ISIS has made their own platform to increase their ability to spread their message. Without the intervention of corporate actors such as Twitter, ISIS has been able to freely spread their messages on their own platforms and websites. In 2017, Europol, the European Police, was able to uncover 52 unique online ISIS networks containing over 2,000 unique extremist items. (Citation 2)

Given certains features of the Dark Web (it requires special browser in order to access, it is also untraceable) tracking down ISIS’s activities on the Dark Web has been extremely difficult for anti terrorism specialists. 

Internal Social Media Policy

Ironically, ISIS has undergone procedures to ban their supporters from using social media after they have already been radicalized. Citing mantras such as “command something that the soul dislikes, obeying them is obligatory,” ISIS has been able to keep their followers off the internet. (Citation 3)

Relevant Impacts of ISIS Social Media Usage

ISIS social media posts have mobilized ordinary citizens throughout the world and other radical jihadists groups to act upon their digitized demands. Their methods have worked to effectively recruit younger individuals to join their groups in a consolidated setting. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are more impressionable mediums, especially on a younger demographic. For this reason, ISIS strategically places their polished messages on these platforms to attract potential new members from an early age. (Citation 13)

A study about the repercussions of social media demonstrated that there were approximately 1,264 cases that could be categorized as “violent-inciting” examples; in these cases, ISIS social media experts have deliberately posted threatening propaganda to provoke offline aggression (Citation 13). Many “call for action” verbs that have a positive connotation have also been utilized to establish feelings of justification towards any pertinent violence.  

Critiques of Movement

Both national governments and corporations have taken a stand against ISIS in both the physical and virtual spheres. 

The U.S. Department of State announced an international coalition in 2014, in which they list five lines of effort to expose ISIS. They include:

Providing military support to partners

Impeding the flow of foreign fighters

Stopping financing and funding

Addressing humanitarian crises in the region

Exposing true nature (Citation 16)

Companies are also taking action to hinder Isis social media recruitment attempts. Google’s ThinkTank, Jigsaw, launched a collaboration with Youtube in July, 2017 to redirect any potential recruits using the Redirect Method. (Citation 9)

“The Redirect Method uses Adwords targeting tools and curated YouTube videos uploaded by people all around the world to confront online radicalization. It focuses on the slice of ISIS’ audience that is most susceptible to its messaging, and redirects them towards curated YouTube videos debunking ISIS recruiting themes. This open methodology was developed from interviews with ISIS defectors, respects users’ privacy and can be deployed to tackle other types of violent recruiting discourses online.” (Citation 15)

By using this tactic, Jigsaw catches slogans that manifest any positive ISIS sentiments, like “Baqiyah wa Tatamadad” (Remaining and Expanding), and “Al Dawla Al Islameyah,” which includes “al-Dawla,” a sign of respect. (Citation) 

Lastly, Anonymous declared war against ISIS in November of 2015, attempting to thwart the social media recruitment efforts by targeting ISIS’s communication networks. (Citation 17)

Citation 

Ingraham, Nathan. “ISIS Created Its Own Social Network to Spread Propaganda.” Engadget, 4 May 2017

Koerner, Brendan I. “Why ISIS Is Winning the Social Media War.” Wired, Conde Nast, 1 May 2017

Dearden, Lizzie. “Isis Bans Fighters from Using Social Media amid Paranoia over Spying and Dissent.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 22 June 2017

“CHAPTER 13 Recruitment and Radicalization: The Role of Social Media And New Technology.” Center for Complex Operations, Center for Complex Operations, 24 May 2016

Bertrand, Natasha. “ISIS Is Taking Full Advantage of the Darkest Corners of the Internet.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 11 July 2015

“'Jihadi Cool': How ISIS Switched Its Recruitment and Social Media Master Plan.” Fox News, FOX News Network

Berger, Morgan (2015-03-05). "Defining and describing the population of ISIS supporters on Twitter". The Brookings Institution. Retrieved 2016-05-22.

Wright, Shaun; Denney, David; Pinkerton, Alasdair; Jansen, Vincent A.A.; Bryden, John (2016-05-17). "Resurgent Insurgents: Quantitative Research Into Jihadists Who Get Suspended but Return on Twitter". Journal of Terrorism Research. 7 (2). ISSN 2049-7040. doi:10.15664/jtr.1213.

Snider, Mike. “YouTube Redirects ISIS Recruits to Anti-Terrorist Videos.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 20 July 2017

Siegel, Jacob. “ISIS Is Using Social Media to Reach YOU, Its New Audience.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 31 Aug. 2014

Kohlmann, Evan. “Everything You Need to Know about ISIS.” MSNBC, NBCUniversal News Group, 20 Nov. 2015

Sen, Ashish Kumar. “How Do You Disrupt ISIS’ Social Media Strategy and Safeguard Freedoms?” Atlantic Council

Awan, Imran. “Cyber-Extremism: ISIS and the Power of Social Media.” Social Science and Public Policy.

Lister, Tim. “ISIS: What Does It Really Want?” CNN, Cable News Network, 11 Dec. 2015

“The Redirect Method.” The Redirect Method, redirectmethod.org/.

“The Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, 10 Sept. 2014, www.state.gov/s/seci/.

Cohen, Paula. “Anonymous Hackers' Group Declares War on ISIS.” CBS News, CBS, 16 Nov. 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/anonymous-hackers-declare-war-on-isis/.

Friedman, Uri. “Where America's Terrorists Actually Come From.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Jan. 2017

Burke, Jason. “How the Changing Media Is Changing Terrorism | Jason Burke.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Feb. 2016

Possible Topics and Edits for ISIS[edit]

  1. Expand the Propaganda Section and the Social Media Section on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Page
  2. Expand Social Media and Terrorist groups on Terrorism and social media Page
  3. Adding a ISIS Social Media Recruitment Page
    • Add the timeline of their unique method of recruitment, and how it came to grow its traction. There was no specific page detailing how this movement unfolded, so this page would be dedicated to this movement and its tactics, main perpetrators, and any opposition from any global leaders. A section can be added about the counter-movement and how governments are funding initiatives to block their campaigns from infiltrating their borders.
  4. Islamic State Hacking Division
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_Hacking_Division
    • This page is short and does not include the specific departments or people that are responsible for hacking/devising their tactics. We can also include a section comparing their tactics to other terrorism groups to showcase why ISIS has been so successful Finalize topic/Find sources Topic: Expand Social Media and Terrorist groups on Terrorism and social media Page

Draft Article[edit]

We chose to improve an existing article, Terrorism and Social Media, which is an extremely short article with only 29 references. Within this article, there are several components that could be included to fully reflect the way terrorism operates within social media platforms; more specifically, we would like to add extensive information regarding ISIS’s methodology in advancing their goals through these mediums. Terrorist groups like the Islamic State have become one of the most active users of social media; they have gone on to successfully recruit members through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. 

Specifically, we hope to cover the topics of ISIS’ social media recruitment strategy, their own social media network, Twitter’s response to their propaganda, and their internal ban on social media for their fighters. Information for these topics will be highlighted in the articles mentioned in last week’s sources assignment. Further, we will cite specific hashtags and analyse the type of videos and propaganda that they created and how it differs from other terrorist groups in the past.

  We wish to expand on how ISIS used social media as their online recruitment tool, discuss the potential impact of that, and most importantly, discuss what could be the possible solution to such issues. The references from the original article are mostly from non academic sources like websites and newspapers, as we expand on this article, we will also review the sources, generalize more information from academic sources like literature review and research papers.  

Our proposed edit is listed below in the following section in italics. We were able to double the section length by describing some of the key information previously missing from the section.

AQAP and Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/DAESH)

Islamic State has emerged as one of the most potent users of social media. In many respects, Islamic State learned their propaganda craft from al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). However, IS quickly eclipsed its mentor, deploying a whole range of narratives, images and political proselytizing through various social media platforms.[15] The particular videos that ISIS often posts include executions of “enemies of the Caliphate” which often consists of westerners or Jordanian nationals. Most infamously, an executioner named Jihadi John was seen in many of these videos prior to his death in 2017. (Citation) 

A study by Berger and Morgan estimated that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by ISIS supporters between September and December 2014.[16] However, as ISIS supporters regularly get suspended and then easily create new, duplicate accounts,[15] counting ISIS Twitter accounts over a few months can overestimate the number of unique people represented by 20–30%.[17] In 2015, Twitter was able to ban 125,000 ISIS sympathetic accounts. Further, an encrypted messaging platform called Telegram banned dozens of pro-ISIS channels.(Citation Article 2)

In response to Twitter and other social media platforms banning their accounts, ISIS has made their own platform to increase their ability to spread their message. Without the intervention of corporate actors such as Twitter, ISIS has been able to freely spread their messages on their own platforms and websites. In 2017, Europol, the European Police, was able to uncover 52 unique online ISIS networks containing over 2,000 unique extremist items. (Citation Article 2)

However, as the November 2015 attacks in Paris demonstrate, IS also uses old-fashioned methods of communication and propaganda. Lewis notes that the attacks in Paris represent the sort of 'propaganda in action' which was a method developed by the 19th century anarchists in Europe. The November 2015 IS attacks were perpetrated without prior warning, largely because the operatives met face-to-face and used other non-digital means of communication. Additionally, it is common for ISIS to claim responsibility of many terror attacks around the world such as the Paris Attacks, the Florida night club shooting, and the Las Vegas attack (citation). 

Ironically, ISIS has undergone procedures to ban their supporters from using social media after they have already been radicalized. Citing mantras such as “command something that the soul dislikes, obeying them is obligatory,” ISIS has been able to keep their followers off the internet. (Citation Article 3).

Peer Review of Draft[edit]

I really like the idea you guys came up with to edit this section of the article. Mentioning ISIS's specific/unique social media platform is definitely useful and adds to this. I think the paragraph about Paris (the 2nd to last one) might be a little too long and could be made a bit shorter, but other than that I don't see any real problems.

Finalize Topic[edit]

Topic: Expand Social Media and Terrorist groups on Terrorism and social media Page

Sources

    • Article: Social Media Strategy of ISIS
      1. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00396338.2014.985436?journalCode=tsur20
      2. Provides an in-depth look at ISIS’ overall social media strategy and investigates its’ effectiveness
    • Article: ISIS created its own social network to spread propaganda
      1. https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/04/isis-created-its-own-social-network-to-spread-propaganda/
      2. This article details ISIS’ effort to work against social media platforms banning their material. Adding evidence from this article would be helpful to explain that ISIS is making it’s own social media platform
    • Article: Why ISIS is winning the social media War
      1. https://www.wired.com/2016/03/isis-winning-social-media-war-heres-beat/
      2. This article explains the organization’s success and draws parallels to other terrorist organizations such as the KKK in the early 20th century.
    • Article: ISIS bans fighters from using social media
      1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-ban-facebook-youtube-twitter-instagram-social-media-fighters-spying-dissent-islamic-state-a7803406.html
      2. This article provides an internal look at the operations of ISIS and their contradictory decision to ban the use of Social Media among some of their members

Article Evaluation Assignment[edit]

Article evaluation (Facebook) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook Most things mentioned in the article are related to the article topic. This is a very long article with a lot of content, I was distracted a bit in the middle, but overall the content is closely related to the topic. This article demonstrates a variety of sources (437 in total) Most of them are independent sources, so overall this article is neutral, I did not detect anything heavily biased in it. However,since this is about the company Facebook, there are a few sources coming from Facebook (such as data), but this is understandable. There are a huge amount of citations in the article, I did not have time to check them all, but out of the ones I selected, the link did work. Most of the information on this article are updated until 2016, considering that we are not finished with 2017 yet, the information is not super out of date. In Wikipedia, the information it presents is only limited to data, growth, history etc, in class, the discussion is more in depth.

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