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EXPLORING TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS’ USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 1
Exploring Terrorist Organizations’ Use of Social
Media
November 21, 2014
COM495
Dr. Glenn Scott
Cameron Banks
Strategic Communications

Abstract
The rise of social media has given businesses and individuals alike the
opportunity to establish their own personal brand and control the output of
information that is pertinent to them. This study focused on the increased use of
social media by terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East. This study
focused largely on ISIS’ use of Twitter, Facebook and its own application, Dawn
of Glad Tidings. Numerous articles were assessed to gather information
regarding the ways that terrorist organizations use social media. Furthermore, a
number of books and journals that discuss the proper uses for social media were
consulted to understand the methodology of terrorists’ social media use. This
research found that terrorists will use their social media following to promote a
series of sophisticated social media strategies as well as to encourage western
youths to join their cause. Terrorist organizations use social media on a very
emotional level to relate to its publics and surprisingly, their public engagement is
much higher than that of the United States government.
I. Introduction
The threat of a terrorist attack still looms large over many Americans today,
despite the absence of a large strike on American soil in several years. Terrorists
have long been stereotyped as savage, religion-driven radicals who seek to
dismantle the first world and create a dysfunctional society. Modern terrorism,
however, involves a smart, cunning network of individuals who understand that
their ability to make war with first world countries requires them to adapt to a
digitally based world. The rise of the cyber-jihad and the development of terrorist
web-networks will force the United States to reconstruct its systems of
counterterrorism to combat a much more capable enemy.
Terrorist organizations thrive on publicity and in a world with a news cycle that
never stops moving, these groups are given a platform to publicly spread word of
their cause. Furthermore, the web presence of terrorist organizations greatly
reduces the distance between foreign enemies and the safety of American soil,
as terrorists are now capable of making war from 7,000 miles away. Al-Qaeda
and Al-Shabaab have both begun to use a cyber-jihadi network that allows like-
minded individuals to share their ways of making jihad via the Internet. More
important though, the use of social media by terrorists has grown significantly
over the last several years and has become an effective tool for informing,
communicating, proselytizing and recruiting. Twitter is perhaps the biggest and
most effective platform used by terrorist organizations, and much of the
information released on Twitter directly contributes to terrorist activity. For
example, in 2011, Al-Shabaab’s public relations Twitter page released the
identity of the CIA chief in Kabul, as well as information about Air Force One’s

new communications systems. YouTube is also a popular network for terrorist
groups, and is used specifically to target western youths.1
The power that social media has over the world is staggering, and the increased
use by terrorist organizations will cause the United States to reassess and adapt
its counterterrorism practices. ISIS, one of the most prominent terrorist groups in
2014 uses social media very maturely and is one of the few organizations who
actively engage their quickly growing followership. Much of its success can be
attributed to the use of social media. This paper serves to explore how the use of
social media has helped to develop the cause of the world’s largest terrorist
organizations. This paper will investigate which aspects of the rise of ISIS can be
attributed to their use of social media and how it will affect net neutrality and the
redevelopment of counterterrorism.
II. Literature Review
Section I: Introduction
Fear and disdain of terrorists are two common traits that unite nearly every
American. The theory of American Exceptionalism2
suggests that Americans
have an innate desire to maintain an enemy, both internationally and
domestically; thus, foreign radicals who operate under a unique series of laws
that potentially pose a threat to the American way of life will consistently be
present in the media. Creating an enemy is a powerful political tool that can
garner support and inspire patriotism and can be achieved in an efficient manner
due to the speed of the modern news cycle. Conversely, modern terrorist cells
are adapting to modern communications tactics and their firsthand presence in
the media is growing. A great deal of literature has been published analyzing how
modern terrorist organizations manipulate the modern media, specifically how
they use social media to expand their network and spread their message. This
literature review serves to outline the ways terrorists currently use social media.
Understanding how various terrorist groups currently employ social media will
provide a foundation to understanding how the use of social media will affect the
development of terrorism and counterterrorism alike.
Section II: Definitions
For one to fully understand how a terrorist uses social media and how it affects
their growth, one must first understand the operational definitions of various key
aspects of this review.
1 Atwan, A.B. (2012). After Bin Laden: Al Qaeda, the next generation. London: Saqi Books.
2 Lipset, M. L. (1997). American exceptionalism: a double-edged sword. New York, NY: W. W.
Norton & Company.

1. Terrorism
“18 U.S.C. § 2331 defines "international terrorism" as activities with three
characteristics.
 Involve violent acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state
law;
 Appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to
influence the policy of a government or intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to
affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or
kidnapping;
 Occur primarily outside the U.S., or transcend national boundaries in
terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they
appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their
perpetrators operate or seek asylum.”3
2. Counterterrorism
“political or military activities designed to prevent or thwart terrorism.”4
3. Net Neutrality
“the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all
content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or
blocking particular products or websites.”5
4. Social Media
“Social media is the collective of online communications channels
dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and
collaboration. Prominent examples include Facebook, Twitter, Google+”,
and Instagram.
 Social CRM: Another aspect of social media related to the review, Social
CRM is Social Media Customer Relationship Management, which is
“fostered by communication with customers through social networking
sites.”6
5. ISIS
ISIS is the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham,’ which “is an unrecognized
state and Sunni insurgent group active in Iraq and Syria….it claims
religious authority over all Muslims across the world, and aims to bring
most Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its political control...The
group has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the
United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Indonesia*, Saudi
Arabia and Turkey.”7
Section III: Detailed Findings
How a Terrorist Organization Establishes Its Brand:
3 http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism-definition
4 Oxford Dictionaries (Web ed.). (2014) Oxford University Press.
5 Oxford Dictionaries (Web ed.). (2014) Oxford University Press.
6 Techtarget.com (Web ed.). (2014) Techtarget.
7 WSJ blog (2014, June 12). What is Islamic state? [Blog post]. Retrieved from
http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2014/06/12/islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-sham-the-short-answer/

Perhaps one of the most important aspects in creating an expanding network of
likeminded individuals is the establishment of a brand. For any organization to
prosper, it needs to establish itself as a unique association and outline its goals
and methods to achieve said goals. Bob Fine, social media analyst, discusses in
his new book, The Big Book of Social Media Case Studies, Stories, Perspectives,
the ways in which different companies can brand themselves online and how
they can manipulate social media to foster the growth of their brand. This is
achieved by first defining what the organization’s key market for expansion is and
how it will affect its business plans.8
For an organization like a terrorist cell to establish itself and build its brand, it
must start from the ground up and lay out a distinct plan. Melanie Mathos and
Chad Norman compiled a system of ways to build an organization from the
ground up and how to expand its network through the use of social media. Beth
Kanter lays out a four-step approach to establish a business plan for a small
organization:
1. People--Where are your constituents engaging and how can you best
reach them?
2. Objectives--What do you want to accomplish?
3. Strategy-- What do you want things to look like when you’re done?
4. Technology--How are you going to get there?
Additionally, Kanter discusses a simple way to track your growth: setup,
communicate, engage, fundraise and measure.9 For a terrorist organization to
grow it needs to identify who its supporters are going to be and the best ways to
address them.
The success of a terrorist organization lies largely within the level of support they
have for their cause, both physical and mental. Motivated individuals are need to
spread word of their cause and exercise their plans to achieve their goals and
support from their publics is needed to ensure they stay relevant. Fine mentions
that it is becoming easier for terrorist organizations to stay relevant in the public’s
eye, even if the publicity is negative. This can be attributed to the transition from
a “24 hour news cycle,” to a “one minute ago news cycle.”10 A terrorist
organization will continue to function if there is continued support for its cause
and continued support is supplied by a consistent stream of information to its
publics and the subsequent customer engagement that is associated with the
stream of information. The growing trend among terrorist groups is to use social
media to quickly and efficiently spread their message, share news and recruit
supporters for its cause.
8 Fine, R. (2014). The big book of social media case studies, stories, perspectives. D. Ingland
(Ed.). Tulsa, OK: Yorkshire.
9 Mathos M., & Norman, C. (2012). 101 social media tactics for nonprofits: a field guide. (Ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10 Fine, R. (2014). The big book of social media case studies, stories, perspectives. D. Ingland
(Ed.). Tulsa, OK: Yorkshire.

How a Terrorist Organization Uses Social Media to Expand Its Network and
Spread Its Message, and The Response From Counterterrorism Units:
Terrorist organizations thrive on the recruitment of young, motivated individuals
eager to make a difference who are willing to give their life to the cause. Iranian
psychologist, Fathali Moghaddam has spent much of his career trying to
understand the mind of a terrorist and how he can contribute to the demise of
international terrorism. Moghaddam tries to assess the mind of a terrorist through
three avenues: The “direct personal experience of the contexts and cultural
systems giving rise to Islamic terrorism...an in-depth study of what captured
terrorists have reported, as well as literature on terrorists’ lives…[and] my
understanding of ‘the terrorists’ point of view.’” Moghaddam’s studies on former
terrorists describe the lives of young vulnerable men who grew up in a broken
society, eager to join a cause that gives them a sense of purpose and an avenue
to create a better life for others.11
The popularity of social media, especially among young audiences has given
terrorist organizations a way to actively recruit supporters and members as well
as serve a number of other purposes, namely the distribution of information
related to the cause. The Islam army, ISIS’ militaristic constituency, maintained
an active Twitter feed in many languages hoping to garner support from Muslims
across the globe. The page featured sentimental statements about the justness
of their cause as well as near-daily updates about what their organization is
doing. The Islam army announces the number of opposing fighters they have
killed, where they are fighting and what they are fighting for. In a supposed ploy
for sympathy or perhaps an alarming awakening for any opposition, the army not
only posts graphic videos of firefights and victims, but of soldiers praying whilst
on the battlefield and messages of support from their leaders.12 13
Other organizations, however, use social media as a tool to further their cause
directly. Gabriel Weimann, professor at Haifa University in Israel, discussed a
way that terrorist organizations can become more efficient in their violent
displays. For example, Indian terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba used
Google Earth, popular online mapping software, to coordinate the Mumbai
bombings in 2008. Furthermore, a study conducted by The Atlantic assessed the
way terrorist group Al-Shabaab used social media to engage in terrorist activity.14
The East-African based terrorist cell, a member of Al-Qaeda, published a video
on Twitter which featured terrorists threatening to kill two Kenyan hostages,
11 Moghaddam, F. M. (2007). From the terrorists’ point of view: what they experience and why
they come to destroy. Westport, Conn: Praeger Security International.
12 Islam Army. (2014, July 3). Our souls will no longer accept humiliation. We shall subject to
Allah [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/IslamArmy_Eng
13 Morrison, K. (2014, June 20) How terrorists use social media to spread their message.
SocialTimes. Retrieved from http://socialtimes.com/terrorists-use-social-media
spread-message_b198433
14 Kjuka, D. (2013, Feb 20) When terrorists take to social media. The Atlantic.
Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/when-terrorists
take-to-social-media/273321/

should their demands not be met. Not only did this assist in the counterterrorist
plan of action, but also, it sparked debate about net neutrality and what can be
posted on the Internet without violating free speech laws. Twitter deleted the
video due to its graphic and violent nature, but began to follow the web
developments of terrorist organizations more closely. The author of the piece
discussed the ways in which authorities assess the threat of a post that contains
potentially damaging material. When posts from organizations that are deemed
to be terrorist organizations are written in English, it is immediately reviewed for
potential threats. However, many posts that are not written in English manage to
slip by authorities. This allows terrorist organizations to continue actively using
social media with little consequence.15 It was not until the spring of 2014 that
social media became a prominent manipulative tool for terrorist organizations.
ISIS, Their Use of Social Media, and Its Effects on The Development of
Modern Terrorism:
ISIS, one of the Middle East’s most reputable terrorist organizations has seen
rapid growth over the last year due in large part to their web presence. Their
network has expanded extremely quickly and their popularity has seen similar
growth. During the summer of 2014, ISIS garnered a large Twitter following and
used the page to recruit new members, spread word of organizational operations
and intentions. ISIS used Twitter to discuss its plans to cripple the United States,
as well as its plans to control Iraq.
ISIS’ growth on Twitter was suspiciously quick during the summer, however an
investigation published by The Huffington Post shed light on how the
organization was able to accumulate so many followers. ISIS managed to create
a system of “Twitter bots” which would retweet pre-published information, as well
as create the illusion of a large followership. This encouraged many young
individuals who were bombarded with information to follow the organization.16
ISIS became the first terrorist organization to consistently engage with their
followership through the release of their mobile phone application, Dawn of Glad
Tidings. Dawn is an application that is used to encourage support for and
involvement within the organization. Additionally, the application provides live
updates about what the organization is doing. Rather than acting as a simple
news outlet, it provides inspirational messages used to appeal to the readers
pathos. Dawn is, however, controversial due to the malpractices of the
developers behind the application and the terrorist group it represents. The
application had the ability to access information about anyone who signed up and
used their personal information to broadcast information about ISIS’ cause. While
15 Kjuka, D. (2013, Feb 20) When terrorists take to social media. The Atlantic.
Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/when-terrorists
16 Bonzio, A. (2014, Sept. 15) ISIS’ use of social media is not surprising; its sophisticated digital
strategy is. Huffpost Tech. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alessandro-bonzio/isis
use-of-social-medi-a _b_5818720.html

one should not be surprised that a terrorist organization manipulated its
followership, one should note that it is the first time that users knowingly gave up
their personal information to a terrorist organization on such a mass scale.17
III. Methods
Section I: Introduction
In order for this study to be successful, it is imperative that it remains topical. In
order for this study to remain topical, all the work analyzed must be current.
Because the world is changing so quickly and media trends evolve so rapidly, the
researcher must continually research the topic to note any differences in the use
of social media by terrorist organizations. For this to work, this study will largely
focus on a great deal of secondary research. Secondary research methods used
include application of previously defined concepts to the topic the researcher
wishes to explore, synthesizing information from secondary research that can be
compiled into a succinct thesis and using the information to project trends that
will continue into the future. A number of academic journals and articles will be
used to make insights as to what is currently occurring in the field as well as to
make projections as to what may occur. A good way of achieving this is to
compare articles from years past to articles written recently and analyze the
trends in their respective analyses. Additionally, the researcher will use a book
called After Bin Laden: Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation, a book which has a great
deal of information about where the development of digital terrorism will go in the
next several years. Furthermore, this study will also on a content analysis of the
social media sites of various terrorist organizations. The researcher will interpret
the tone and content of the pages to make insights. To strengthen the research,
the researcher will compare the terrorist groups social media sites with the social
media sites of the United States government.
Section II: Sample
For this study, the sample studied is extremely broad. However, to explore the
research questions selected, the sample must be whittled down. While this study
focuses mainly on ISIS, information regarding other terrorist organizations will be
used to gain a broader understanding of the topic. This study will feature a
content analysis of several academic journals and articles as well as the analysis
of the Facebook and Twitter pages of ISIS, Al-Shabaab, Boko al-Haram and the
White House.18
17 Berger, J. M. (2014, June 16) How ISIS games twitter. The Atlantic. Retrieved from
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-social media
strategy/372856/
18 The Twitter and Facebook pages of the four aforementioned terrorist organizations were shut
down and archived tweets and posts deleted by management. This occurred during the analysis

Section III: Protocol
Definitions are key for this study. It will be imperative to create a quantifiable
system of interpretation to make sure that all research can be analyzed equally.
While a great deal of the assessment is heavily reliant on the tone and
perspective, some of the information analyzed will deal with the actual facts. It is
rather difficult to quantify tone and perspective, so for this study, the researcher
will simply analyze each article and selected reading looking for the perspective
that each piece maintains and compare each perspective to the general
interpretation of each piece. The researcher will study which networks rely more
heavily on appealing to the readers’ emotion and which rely more heavily on fear.
Furthermore, the research will assess which networks are more reliant on
pictures and videos and which are more reliant on text. Finally, the popularity of a
terrorist organizations web presence will be assessed to understand the extent of
its reach.
Section IV: Analysis
Once the data has been gathered, the researcher will organize the information
into a succinct body of findings that will allow for the researcher to make original
conclusions. Information gathered for this study will be focused around
answering two key research questions.
RQ 1: How has the use of social media helped to develop the causes of ISIS and
the world’s largest terrorist organizations?
RQ 2: What aspects of the rise of ISIS can be attributed to their use of social media,
and how will it affect net neutrality and the development of counterterrorism?
The findings will be presented in the next section.
IV. Detailed Findings
The use of social media by terrorist organizations hit its high point in the summer
of 2014, however ISIS, Boko al-Haram and al-Shabaab still maintain a large web
presence. Despite public outcry for the banning of social media networks run by
confirmed terrorist organizations, Facebook and Twitter refused to shut the sites
down. It wasn’t until June 16, 2014 that Facebook shut down ISIS’ Facebook
page and it wasn’t until October 12, 2014 that Twitter shut down ISIS’ feed.
However, some of the information publicly broadcasted on these websites is still
published across the web. After ISIS’ Twitter feed was suspended, ISIS officials
phase of the research, thus the study will largely focus on secondary research, analysis of news
media and trends as well as the study of Tweets and Facebook posts that still remain accessible.
The Facebook page was shut down June 16, 2014 and the Twitter page was shut down October
12, 2014.

issued a threat of death to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and called for the
assassination of all Twitter management.19
The use of social media by terrorist organizations is the simplest form of
propaganda readily available to them and provides a structured platform to
distribute their messages, raise capital and garner support for their causes in
areas that are not usually accessible to them. Due to their fringe existence in
society, extremists often look for the most effective ways to communicate and
build large networks, and the use of social media is the next logical step in their
plans, says Alessandro Bonzio.20 Bonzio, freelance writer and expert in social
media, terrorism and international policy, specifically notes the use of social
media as a development from the intercommunication networks established by
Osama Bin Laden following the attacks on September 11. It wasn’t until the
advent of social media that extremist groups were able to publicly communicate.
“Password-protected forums – up until recently the main virtual gathering place
for al-Qaeda supporters – made content particularly difficult to access for
wannabe jihadists, while also representing a common target for the security
services’ disruption efforts” (Bonzio, 2014).
Social media networks allow terrorist organizations to redirect their
communication efforts into a much more coordinated and planned strategy,
rather than an occasional blast through the western media streams. The biggest
key to their bouts of success can be attributed to the wildly successful use of
hashtags. ISIS’ strategy for marketing their brand is hugely sophisticated and
uses a concept as simple as “hashtagging.” JM Berger, terrorism expert,
analyzed ISIS’ use of hashtags and how it has affected the development of their
brand. “ISIS uses hashtags to focus-group messaging and branding concepts.”21
This year, ISIS considered rebranding and changing its name prompting
supporters to create a hashtag promotion that would look like a “grassroots
initiative.”22 Supporters used this opportunity to call on ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-
Baghdadi, to not declare an Islam state in Iraq and Syria but to call it a rebirth of
an Islamic caliphate. Previous data analyzed in the spring of 2014 saw great
success for ISIS’ hashtag initiative, showing more than 10,000 mentions of its
promoted hashtag nearly every day. Further supporting the organization’s use of
hashtags is a popular Arabic twitter feed that promotes popular tweets in the
Middle East regularly publishes their (ISIS’) tweets. On average, any ISIS tweet
that gets broadcast by @ActiveHashtags will result in 72 retweets.
19 Grossman, A. (2014, Oct 10) Twitter CEO reveals ISIS had threatened to kill him after site shut
down jihadist accounts. Daily Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2787735-ceo-reveals-isis-threatened-kill-site-shut-jihadist-accounts.html
20 Bonzio, A. (2014, Sept. 15) ISIS’ use of social media is not surprising; its sophisticated digital
strategy is. Huffpost Tech. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alessandro-bonzio/isis-
use-of-social-medi- a_b_5818720.html
21 Berger, J.M. (2014, June 16) How ISIS games twitter. The Atlantic. Retrieved from
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-socialmedia-
strategy/372856
22 Berger, J.M. How ISIS games twitter. 2014.

A troubling development that is hampering the growth of ISIS’ web presence is
the web restrictions imposed by the Iraq government. In a controversial move
that reminds Iraqi citizens and people everywhere of the tyrannical dictatorship
led by Saddam Hussein, the government banned Facebook and Twitter in the
summer of 2014.23 Web restrictions were common under Hussein but are an
unwelcome step back in a nation many hoped were moving in the direction of
democracy. Social media use has been huge in Iraq since its rise to prominence.
Following the ban on Facebook and Twitter, the government was quick to restrict
YouTube and Instagram use in the nation. This led to the development of
Psiphon, a service that circumvents the web restrictions and allows users to
continue using the services. The introduction of Psiphon, coincidentally, has seen
an even greater use of social media nationwide following the ban.24 In order to
combat the web restrictions, ISIS revealed perhaps the biggest development in
cyber-warfare with the release of its own mobile application, The Dawn of Good
Tidings.25
The Dawn of Good Tidings, or Dawn as it is commonly referred to, is a user-
interface driven application developed by ISIS to spread the word of its cause
and to encourage supporters to become active web members of the organization.
The app, available for Android phones in Syria and Iraq, was first rolled out in
April 2014 and saw thousands of users sign up immediately. Users are forced to
surrender a great deal of personal information should they choose to install the
application such as “access to modifying or deleting ‘the contents of your USB
storage; and to ‘view Wi-Fi connections.”26 While most users agree that the
application has a user-friendly interface and usually has no issues, there are
23 Miller, J. (2014, June 16) Iraq blocks Facebook and Twitter in bid to restrict Isis. BBC News
Technology Online. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27869112
24 Miller, J. (2014, June 16) Iraq blocks Facebook and Twitter in bid to restrict Isis. BBC News
Technology Online. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27869112
25 Trowbridge, A. (2014, June 16) Jihadists on the move in Iraq with weapons, hashtags. CBS
News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-jihadists-on-move-in-iraq-using-
weapons-and-twitter-hashtags/
26 Hussein, T. (2014, June 17) Isis official app available to download on Google Play. ITV News.
Retrieved from http://www.itv.com/news/2014-06-17/isiss-official-app-available-to-download-on-
google-play/

short bursts wherein the engineers of the application will commandeer their
(users) entire social media presence. ISIS uses the application to project its
messages to a wider group of individuals and will hack into its users’ accounts to
publicly broadcast tweets from the users individual profiles. This tactic is a large
part of the reason why its hashtag campaign has been so successful. Part of the
development of this application is to reconstruct the image that the organization
portrays and rebrand from the ground up. Joseph Carter, research fellow at the
International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, said, “Isis has been
incredibly influential and effective on social media in their effort to get the
message out and amplify its message above other groups. [Isis are] doing a lot of
work on branding to make them look like an effective and desirable fighting force
to join…The effect on the UK is that it means they will be more effective in
recruiting foreign fighters.”27
Recruitment for its cause is a driving factor for the development of social media
use by terrorist organizations. Prior to the use of social media, organizations had
a much more difficult task in attracting others to join the cause than they do
today. Developments such as Dawn have contributed to the rebranding of ISIS
and have offered a more appealing cause for potential supporters to join.
Terrorist organizations rely heavily on new support for their cause and support
from the West is especially beneficial for them. Social media has allowed terrorist
organizations to pluck young westerners wishing to make a difference and bring
them over to join the fight. Social media gives ISIS a new advantage: it gives
potential, disillusioned western supporters a sense of community and offers them
a place to project their reasons for joining and publicly express their support for
the cause.28
27 Hussein, T. Isis official app available. 2014.
28 Ryan, L. (2014, October 10) Al-Qaida and Isis use twitter differently. Here’s how and why. NJ
Daily. Retrieved from http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/al-qaida-and-isis-use-twitter-differently-
here-s-how-and-why-20141009

Terrorist organizations will often flaunt their western members both for public
image as well as for recruiting new members. Terrorist organizations will use
their new western members as the face of the organization and use them to
attract similar individuals. Abdullah Elmir (name given to boy after arriving in
Syria) left his West-Sydney home in June and made his way to Turkey before
crossing into Syria to join the fight. The boy was the focus of a video released by
ISIS wherein Elmir stated, “To the leaders, to Obama, to Tony Abbott [Australian
Prime Minister], I say this; these weapons that we have, these soldiers, we will
not stop fighting, we will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands,
until we take the head of every tyrant and until the black flag is flying high in
every single land…Bring every nation that you want to come and fight us. It
means nothing to us. Whether it’s 50 nations or 50,000 nations, it means nothing
to us…Bring your planes. Bring everything you want to us. Because it will not
harm us. Why? Because we have Allah.”29 Greg Barton, director at the Global
Terrorism Research Centre, says the video is a recruitment pitch used to target
other young men in the western world. Barton suggested that the video would be
appealing to individuals like Elmir because, “here’s a small kid from Bankstown,
now he’s with the Syrian fighters and he’s right in the middle of the action…And
that, for kids, is attractive.”30
A great deal of the content published by ISIS is used to recruit members from the
western world, such as an ISIS tweet showing fighters posing with Nutella.
Additionally, a lot of the content is used for propaganda purposes. One individual
posted a tweet that was later reposted by ISIS’ now defunct Twitter page that
featured the iconic black ISIS flag flying in front of the White House. ISIS uses a
series of strategies in its social media packages that all vary in nature. A large
number of the tweets posted are used to appeal to the viewers’ emotion, inspiring
bouts of glory and honor in joining their cause as well as providing reason for
them. A lot of the tweets and Facebook posts include violent and graphic images
and videos that serve two main purposes. The first is to inspire fear locally
suggesting that either they join and save the brothers who have fallen, or as a
warning for those who are not involved. The second purpose is propaganda-like
techniques aimed at the United States. The propaganda released by the
organizations either encourages Americans to join or to “put together something
like a Boston marathon kind of attack,” or violent videos. The climax of ISIS’
social media was the release of three videos on YouTube, which featured the
beheading of journalists that were missing in Iraq since 2012.31
29 Welch, D. (2014, October 21) Australian teenager Abdullah Elmir appears in Islamic State
video threatening PM Tony Abbott. ABC AU. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-
10-21/australian-is-fighter-threatens-tony-abbott-in-video-5830040
30 Welch, D. (2014, October 21) Australian teenager Abdullah Elmir appears in Islamic State
video threatening PM Tony Abbott. ABC AU. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-
10-21/australian-is-fighter-threatens-tony-abbott-in-video-5830040
31 Siegel, J. (2014, August 31) ISIS is using social media to reach you, its new audience. The
Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/31/isis-s-use-of-social-
media-to-reach-you-its-new-audience.html

ISIS uses social media for a wide variety of reasons, however, the application
and execution is arguably more successful than that of the United States
government. J.M. Berger argues that its specifically, calculated and crafted social
media strategy is the reason why ISIS is growing so quickly and why the
organization has established itself as a legitimate brand on the web.32 Despite
the presence of pictures of graphic violence and the consistent spiel to attract
new members, one must recognize that ISIS’ user interaction is far superior
compared to the social media use of the American government.
V. Conclusions
For this study, the researcher sought out to answer two key research questions:
1. How has the use of social media helped to develop the causes of ISIS and
the world’s largest terrorist organizations?
a. What aspects of the rise of ISIS can be attributed to the use of
social media, and how will it affect net neutrality and the
development of counterterrorism?
The study, which originally was focused around assessing the tweets posted by
ISIS over the course of the last several months, drew its conclusions from the
analysis of various news reports and previous studies on the topic. The
researcher was able to draw a series of conclusions regarding the ways in which
ISIS uses social media as well as the reverberating effects that it has on society
as a whole.
The researcher was able to pinpoint the specific ways that the terrorist
organization uses social media and why it was effective. The most prevalent use
for social media by ISIS was to spread messages of its cause. This was done
through tweets and Facebook messages predominantly as well as through the
release of videos and pictures on YouTube and Instagram. The posts relied
heavily on an appeal to emotion, aiming to inspire feelings of hope for a more
ideal society, feelings of fear aimed at encouraging people to join the cause and
by inspiring feelings of glory with the hopes of plucking disillusioned young
individuals with a thirst for making change and involving themselves in the action.
This method of social media recruitment is admirable, to say the least. The
organization was able to successfully raise its numbers of active fighters and
supporters significantly simply by regularly posting and relying on its followers to
spread the word through its hashtag strategy.
The hashtag strategy employed by ISIS is surprisingly sophisticated and is one of
the key factors in the organization’s success in cyber-warfare. By crafting a
specific hashtag to promote and encouraging followers to spread the word, the
32 Berger, J.M. How ISIS games twitter. 2014.

organization was able to amplify its messages and broadcast them to the
western world. Attracting individuals from the western world is one of the goals in
using social media and ISIS has been greatly successful. This, however, is
controversial because it requires the United States and other western countries
to become more involved with ISIS domestically. While the United States
currently employs about 3,000 American troops on the ground in Iraq in advisor
roles, the American government now faces the daunting task of controlling a
terrorist cell growing within the United States. This has led to the development of
new counterterrorist strategies that align with common Internet uses.
The FBI has begun a new campaign that aims to stop young individuals from
joining ISIS in the United States by trolling pages where western supporters try to
learn more about the cause. One specific case featured Besit Javid Sheikh, a
Cary, North Carolina based American who wanted to join Al-Nusra Front, an Al-
Qaeda affiliate. Sheikh asked a Syrian friend a way in which he could do that and
she connected him with a “trusted brother” who was actually an FBI special agent
who watched him buy a ticket to Beirut before arresting him at Raleigh-Durham
International Airport on Nov. 2, 2013 on charges of supporting a foreign terrorist
organization.33
This development has seen the FBI modify their tactics for catching would-be
terrorists or for thwarting terrorist attacks to using the Internet to preemptively
catch said perpetrator. A development like this is huge in the counterterrorism
world and came as a direct result of the prevalence of terrorist organizations on
the web. The very presence of terrorists or terrorist organizations on the Internet
is remarkable because it forces social media executives to rethink the way net
neutrality is handled. The American government is firm in its protection of
freedom of speech and that the Internet falls under this umbrella. However,
Twitter and Facebook alike specifically outline in their bylaws that they restrict the
presence of any terrorist activity or terrorist organization pages on their websites.
It wasn’t until late 2014 that the aforementioned websites removed the feeds
managed by ISIS despite their pages being present for over two years. In 2011,
Al-Shabaab, Somalia based terror group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, publicly
broadcast warning videos that featured terrorists with hostages in Kenya that
they were threatening to shoot. Furthermore they frequently posted tweets and
Facebook posts that were “terrorist-like” in nature and the page was still not
banned. The argument that all should be allowed to project their views on the
Internet is sound, but when something evolves into a tangible threat, the post
should be removed.
Another controversial topic that arose from terrorists’ use of social media is ISIS
hacking into the social media accounts of its followers to broadcast their
messages. While users were warned of what may occur should they sign up for
33 Windrem, R., Brunker, M. (2014, October 21) No lol matter: FBI trolls social media for would-be
jihadis. NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/no-lol-matter-fbi-
trolls-social-media-would-be-jihadis-n226841

the app (having to surrender a great deal of personal information and warnings
that the app may post for them), it is still a touchy subject. Over 40,000 tweets
have been sent through the followers and subsequently, ISIS’ brand has gained
more recognition. While this may be the mildest case of cyber terrorism that the
organization employs, it still is a manipulation of its publics.
ISIS use of propaganda towards the people of Iraq and Syria as well as the
citizens of the United States is controversial as well. The organization
successfully uses psychological warfare to get into the minds of those reading
their content. The strategies employed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations
are much more sophisticated than many believe and it forces many to reconsider
the brand of the organization as a whole. The United States counterterrorism
units will have to tread lightly if they seek to destroy the organization from behind
a screen because, evidently, ISIS is not far behind the rest of the world regarding
social media and the manipulation of the web as a whole.
Should the United States government choose to explore options that will restrict
the threat of web-based psychological warfare, it will be stepping into a sea of
red tape and restriction. Not only will the government face arguments regarding
net neutrality and freedom of speech, it will face resistance from Muslim groups
in the United States. While many domestic Muslims disagree with ISIS, there is
still a select few that support them. That small sect of individuals has the power
to accuse the government of religious oppression.
Until ISIS directly attacks the United States, they can do little to control the
rapidly spreading military force. While the United States still has troops deployed
to the region, they are unable to engage in warfare with the terrorist cell. Should
an attack be made on the United States, the American military will be able to use
ISIS’ social media presence as a weapon of its own. The American military would
be able to triangulate the locations of transmissions and assess previously
published information to determine future moves.
Should social media continue to expand at the rate it has in the next coming
years, terrorist organizations will adapt and continue to operate digitally in a
sophisticated manner. Despite past missteps including manipulation of its own
publics, terrorist organizations have a bright future in web-based communication.

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