NATHAN STEPHENSON Tweets of Terrorists
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NATHAN STEPHENSON
Tweets of Terrorists
ISIS Summary
ISIS: Islamic State of Iraq and SyriaAl Qaeda splinter group of Sunni militants
Seeks to bring Muslim-inhabited areas under its political control
Platforms
Active across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Used to incite support and spread their message
From the Horse’s Mouth
Shapes their image directly through social media
We receive a lot of content directly from ISIS, as opposed to through the lens of a journalist
They are creating a brand for themselves
Content
Post pictures and videos of captured Iraqi soldiers, beheadings, mass executions
Also, cat pics
Online Forums
Traditionally, terrorist groups used online forums to disseminate information, communicate, and garner support.
ISIS officials could easily control debate on these forums by deleting certain posts and suspend potentially troublesome users
Platforms Cont.
Twitter is more difficult to control, but provides more ubiquitous message
Thousands of individual fighters have personal Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts
Despite large number of accounts, the campaign is very deliberate and very coordinated
One of the ways the coordinate this campaign is through an app called the Dawn of Glad Tidings
Dawn of Glad Tidings App
AKA “Dawn”Official ISIS product promoted by the
organization’s top usersAdvertised as a way to keep on latest news
about the groupHundreds of users have signed up for the app
Dawn Cont.
First used in April 2014Once signed up, the app posts tweets on
behalf of your accountContent is decided by individuals in ISIS’s
social-media operationTweets of links, pictures, and hashtags are
posted by everyone who has signed up for the app
Sometimes produces as many as 40,000 tweets per day
Dawn App Cont.
Tweets made by the Dawn app are spread out to avoid triggering Twitter’s spam-detection algorithms
Dawn App Cont.
Used to spread below imageVolume of tweets caused any search for
“Baghdad” to generate the image among its first results
Done to promote intimidating image
Intimidation
Various reports say that when ISIS invaded Iraq, Iraqi police forces abandoned their uniforms, dropped their weapons, and fled
The invasion was met with little resistenceReportedly, partially due to the intimidating
brand ISIS has created and spread for itself through social media
Organized Hashtag Campaigns
ISIS periodically enlists thousands of activists to repetitively tweet hashtags at certain times of day so that the hashtags trend
Skews results of Arabic Twitter account @ActiveHashtags
@ActiveHashtags
Tweets the day’s top trending tagsVarious accounts that do the same thingOnce ISIS hashtags make it into the streams,
it can result in hundreds of retweets per tweet
Recruit Support
ISIS uses social media campaign to recruit support
Increasing number of foreign fighters seeking to join ISIS
Current reports estimate that thousands of foreign fighters (including approximately 100 Americans) are currently involved in ISIS conflict in Syria
Narrowcasting
One of the ways ISIS achieves this is through narrowcasting
They develop specific content for various purposes
In one video, the leader of ISIS vocalizes a message targeted specifically at children; he calls for “the youths around the globe” to join his cause
Another video features a Canadian turned ISIS fighter attempting to appeal to Westerners
Online Support
Certain groups with no official ties to ISIS have taken it upon themselves to further enhance online presence
Translate and repost ISIS content in various langauges
Adapt content posted by ISIS to better target Westerners
Reaction from Twitter
Twitter periodically suspends ISIS accounts, but more accounts continue to open
New accounts are quickly created and regain thousands of followers in a matter of hours
Conclusion
ISIS uses social media to develop a brand for themselves, spread their message, intimidate their enemies, and recruit support
Coordinated, effective utilization of social media is an integral part of their organization
References
https://news.vice.com/article/isis-fighters-and-their-friends-are-total-social-media-pros
https://news.vice.com/article/jihad-selfies-these-
british-extremists-in-syria-love-social-media
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-social-media-strategy/372856/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/23/who-behind-isis-propaganda-operation-iraq