Professional paper

The Islamic State on Social Media

Matej Beluhan

Abstract

Alongside their military successes in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has, over the last few years, developed a public information campaign that focuses on social media. By making use of social media, Twitter in particular, radical Islamists distribute propaganda that brings them closer together with the younger and more vulnerable Muslims the world over. Besides online radicalization, worldwide security faces the problem of an ever-increasing number of recruits that, upon making contact with any of the terrorists on social media, engage in either training or battles in territories occupied by the Islamic State. The number of foreign citizens that have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIL is estimated at about 15,000, 2,000 of who hail from Western countries. The large amount of online followers on official radical Islamist social media accounts, as well as an organized information campaign, have had a significant impact on the worldwide view of the terrorist organization. The better acquainted we become with the online strategies that the Islamic State employs, the more diminished the impact of its self-marketing and jihadist intimidation.

Keywords

social media; (public) information campaign; Islamic State (ISIL); online radicalization; recruitment

Hrčak ID:

175038

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/175038

Publication date:

21.12.2016.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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