ISIS: Social Media Analysis

Each day ISIS (now known as IS, Islamic State) gains followers and territory in the Middle East, their social media presence has expanded its influence well beyond any organization before them, taking the battlefield directly to everyone. ISIS is the first terrorist organization to successfully use social media as a recruiting process for today’s youth because social media is such a key component of everyday life.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was declared by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization in 2003. In June 2014, ISIS rebranded itself as IS, the Islamic State, the change was made to reflect their claim of territorial sovereignty in parts of Iraq and Syria.
ISIS was created in 2003 as a branch of al Qaeda in Iraq
The growing numbers of Americans and other Westerners attempting to join ISIS, mixed with the support it has received on the ground in certain places, suggests that its social media efforts might be paying off.
Current reports estimate that between Twelve Thousand and Fifteen thousand foreign fighters, including as many as one hundred Americans, are currently engaged in the conflict in Iraq and Syria fighting for the Isis cause. Although it is impossible to claim that social media has played a definitive role in their recruitment, ISIS’s online propaganda has often targeted westerners.
Isis is not the first terrorist group to use social media though, for other terrorist organization have had twitter accounts as early as 2010. These other groups did so as a secondary means of communication. Terrorist propaganda was usually found on extremist forums, allowing for downloadable content such as magazines, videos and
Or send it to people whom hold government office as well as sending them threats, and ridicule them. All this enhances the group’s image and encourages Westerners to support and join the organization and support the Islamic cause.
Much of Isis’s social media campaign focuses on depicting ISIS as a goodwill organization. Several Twitter feeds controlled by ISIS, frequently release pictures of militants playing with children, distributing food and performing other social services. “”In April 2014, ISIS produced a video featuring a former German rapper turned ISIS militant Denis Cuspert engaged in a snowball fight with fellow Isis members, chanting in German, “Now you see here in Syria, we can also have fun! That’s jihad, jihad makes for fun and we have fun here with the children come on, we invite you to