How ISIS uses social media to spread their messages to the world

Media campaign...IS has an official media wing, Twitter pages with direct messages from ISIS leadership and a fiery online magazine in English. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied

ISLAMIC State has a slick and professional media arm, which uses social media to disseminate its messages and garner support around the world.

It has an official media wing, Twitter pages with direct messages from IS leadership and a fiery online magazine in English which contains often disturbing images of bodies and death and destruction.
Jake Wallis, an expert in social media at Charles Sturt University’s School of Information Studies, says IS are using sophisticated technology combined with networks of sympathisers in diaspora communities in Western countries to help disseminate the IS narrative.
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Mr Wallis said the sophistication includes development of their own App called Dawn of Glad Tidings which allows them to amplify their social media postings.

Savvy...the leaders of Sydney's hard line Muslim groups continue to maintain close links on social media, issuing pro-ISIS and jihadi paraphernalia online. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied

Gaining support...radical Muslim leaders are rebooting social media accounts under false names with different profile photos in a bid to dodge a Facebook and Twitter crackdown and keep feeding IS propaganda to followers. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied

Mr Wallis said this particular App allowed their postings to be reposted on different sites, extending the reach of the messages.
And by using the sympathiser networks the group is more likely to reach vulnerable individuals.
“Then you find people in these networks who may be vulnerable to these type of messages, maybe marginalised in diaspora communities then it becomes about targeting individuals for some sophisticated processes of radicalisation,” Mr Wallis said.
He said that IS had also been using a social network called Diaspora which works from remote servers.
“It is really difficult to talk about the kind of audiences they are reaching … but you are talking about a really massive audience and the fact that they are switching across global networks means they are really savvy,” Mr Wallis said.
Counter-terrorism expert, Associate Professor Nick O’Brien from the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University, says that social media does not necessarily radicalise people per se but helps those already in that frame of mind to find radical messages and to find like-minded individuals.

Embracing technology...Radical Muslims and those involved with IS are increasingly turning to Twitter to spread their message and reach out to others. Picture: Supplied. Source: Twitter

And because it is now so cheap and easy, social media is an effective marketing strategy for groups such as IS.
Assoc Prof O’Brien is a former head of international counter terrorism intelligence and operations at the special branch in London’s Scotland Yard.
“The whole thing about it is that is relatively cheap, you can run it from a cave in Afghanistan and you can use your laptop and a satellite phone. A tweet doesn’t cost you anything,” Assoc Prof O’Brien said.
He said that online magazines, such as the IS magazine Dabiq and Inspire, an English publication of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, were able to produce more in-depth and lengthy articles which were even more effective in rallying people to the cause.
And these kinds of online publications are easy to make.

Easy...Social media is proving to be a cheap and easy way for IS to spread their message. Picture: AFP / Douglas E. CURRAN Source: AFP

“Once you have the words to go in it and you get the pictures from online you can produce it for next to nothing and put out a magazine which has a million plus readers. These days you can make it for almost the change in your pocket,” Assoc Prof O’Brien said.
Social media had become the marketing strategy for groups like IS who had become increasingly sophisticated. He said even the group’s name, Islamic State, was clever.
“It is not some obscure phrase that no-one knows. They are making a statement that we are a State. That is all part of the marketing strategy I think,” Assoc Prof O’Brien said.
In some cases the intelligence world prefers to allow the Twitter and social media accounts of terror leaders to continue operating , primarily because it helps them to glean information about the group and its operatives.
This includes strategic information about where they are located, operations that are planned and general operational information.