[AnNahar] At least 46,000 Twitter accounts have been linked to supporters of the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
in late 2014, a research report released in Washington showed.
| Somebody hopefully is tracking their locations and connections and such... |
"From September through December 2014, the authors estimate that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by ISIS supporters, although not all of them were active at the same time," the report said.
Authors JM Berger and Jonathon Morgan said analysis of the social media efforts of the murderous Moslem Islamic group also known as ISIS needs to go beyond the core leadership.
"Previous analyses of ISIS' Twitter reach have relied on limited segments of the overall ISIS social network," they wrote in the report commissioned by Google Ideas.
"The small, cellular nature of that network -- and the focus on particular subsets within the network such as imported muscle -- may create misleading conclusions."
Analyzing the location embedded in the tweets, the researchers found the largest number of ISIS supporters in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, followed by Syria, Iraq and the United States.
Nearly one in five of the IS supporters tweeted in English, they found, with three quarters tweeting in Arabic.
The supporting accounts had an average of about 1,000 followers each, higher than most Twitter users. Accounts that tweeted most often and had the most followers were most likely to be suspended.
The authors said social media companies and the U.S. government "must work together to devise appropriate responses to extremism on social media."
They noted that "although discussions of this issue often frame government intervention as an infringement on free speech, in reality, social media companies currently regulate speech on their platforms without oversight or disclosures of how suspensions are applied."
Twitter said this week it was working with law enforcement officials on unspecified threats, amid reports that the social network had been targeted for blocking accounts linked to the Islamic State.
A page on the online bulletin board Pastebin showed an image of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in what appear to be the crosshairs of a rifle scope and a message in Arabic.
SITE Intelligence, a U.S. group that monitors jihadist threats, said the post was made by al-Nusra
...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant...
al-Maqdisiya, a pro-Islamic State media group.
A translation of the message by SITE said that Dorsey and Twitter are now being targeted by Islamic forces of Evil for suspending certain accounts.
"You began this failed war, and we have told you from the beginning that it is not your war! But you did not understand. You shut down our accounts and we quickly return, but when our lone lions shut down your breathing there will be no return!" the message said.