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| Iraq |
| How ISIS is winning the online war for Iraq |
| 2014-07-01 |
| As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claimed control of Iraq's biggest oil refinery and a key border crossing between Iraq and Jordan–it lost a key propaganda weapon: its powerful smartphone app. However, ISIS won't consider it a major setback, as it has an extensive and sophisticated online presence. New Scientist investigates the tools at its disposal. What kind of app did ISIS have? ISIS had written its own Android app, called The Dawn of Glad Tidings, to enable it to spread information via social media. The app allowed users to make their Twitter accounts available to ISIS, so that the organisation could use them to send tweets. On 19 June, Google removed the app from its Android store "for breaching its community guidelines" against violent content. When ISIS took Mosul earlier this month, the app fired out 40,000 tweets in a day, and their gory threats and images may have gone some way to inducing the surrender of the Iraqi army. But ISIS is sophisticated in its use of propaganda. It also puts out benevolent images of its supporters delivering food supplies, for example. What else is ISIS doing online? ISIS seems to be aware of a key aspect of the power of social media: that it is a conversation. Platforms such as Ask.fm, on which users can post questions and give answers anonymously, enable people to have direct conversations with ISIS fighters. "Terror group communications used to be unidirectional - for instance al-Qaeda publishing its magazine. Twitter and Ask.fm now allow people to have a conversation with, say, an ISIS fighter. And that two-way interaction humanises these guys," says Shiraz Maher of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at Kings College London. "A 19-year-old from Bradford finds a 19-year-old from Leeds in Syria and they find they have a lot in common, making it all a bit more real." |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #6 Now I'm picturing P&G at war with Caliphate Dudes... Logistics. It's all about the logistics. |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2014-07-01 16:45 |
| #5 I like, Package Goods put on their war face. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-07-01 15:02 |
| #4 Frozen Al, I watched one of their 60 minutes highlight reels, and one of the things there were doing was going car to car with a laptop w/ camera taking face shots. Nice to see they have a dating site as well. Helps spread the required homosexuality necessary for a true jihadi. My serious face, I am not slandering homosexuality with the comparison; I am pointing out the homosexual tendancies of the culture of devout muslim; marrying girls before they start to look like girls, selling women captives but raping the men, the discouragement of interacting with women to the point of encouraging only man-man relationships, to 'exercising' for the sake of butt bombs. Dawn of Glad Tidings - sounds like a household necessity commercial. Howz about Cascade of Swiffer Fresh Step. Bounce of Arm & Hammer Crest. Heinz of French's Hellmen. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2014-07-01 14:02 |
| #3 Yes, because stories of mass beheadings and Junta are all the rage. |
| Posted by: Charles 2014-07-01 12:43 |
| #2 There was an interesting article in one of the UK papers about ISIS tactics in Tikrit. They captured a military base and captured the personnel app intact. They downloaded the app and database to other ISIS laptops and set up checkpoints surrounding the city. When Iraqi men tried to get through the checkpoint, ISIS compared their names to those on the database. There was a base nearby that held out. Many troops sent their families south to safety. However ISIS was waiting for them and took the families hostage. ISIS exchange the families for control of the base and a nearby pipeline. |
| Posted by: frozen al 2014-07-01 10:03 |
| #1 Basically, by showing up. The Iraqi certainly didn't. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-07-01 07:33 |