Apocalypse, Later: A Longitudinal Study of the Islamic State Brand
September 18, 2023
This article compares two universes of official Islamic State media that were compiled 18 months apart. It explores the nuances of the group’s worldview and illustrates the extent to which external and internal situational exigencies impacted the Islamic State’s brand during its formative years as caliphate. It finds that the organization’s media infrastructure was about ...
Arguing with ISIS: Web 2.0, Open Source Journalism, and Narrative Disruption
September 18, 2023
This paper considers American strategies for countering ISIS social media, focusing on notions of narrative and rational debate in the Web 2.0 era. In addition to chronicling an evolution in American governmental ideas about the online public sphere, the paper looks specifically at the work of Al-Tamimi, an open source journalist who verifies and catalogues ...
A Genosonic Analysis of ISIL and US Counter-Extremism Video Messages
September 18, 2023
Analyses of extremist video messages typically focus on their discursive content. Using the case of ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), this study instead draws upon the emerging subfield of genosonic analysis to understand the allure of extremist videos, as well as the ineffectiveness of US video messages designed to ‘counter violent extremism’ ...
Online Territories of Terror – How Jihadist Movements Project Influence on the Internet and Why it Matters Offline
September 18, 2023
This doctoral thesis takes the reader into elements of the strategy of using modern communication as well the advocated monopoly of truth by jihadist groups world wide. ...
The 60 Days of PVE Campaign: Lessons on Organizing an Online, Peer-to-Peer, Counter-radicalization Program
September 18, 2023
Combatting violent extremism can involve organizing Peer-to-Peer (P2P) preventing violent extremism (PVE) programs and social media campaigns. While hundreds of PVE campaigns have been launched around the world in recent months and years, very few of these campaigns have actually been reviewed, analyzed, or assessed in any systematic way. Metrics of success and failure have ...
Explaining Extremism: Western Women in Daesh
September 18, 2023
Women participate extensively in armed, Islamist struggle. In recent years, foreign women have travelled from the West to join Daesh. Their participation perplexes policymakers, government officials, and researchers who call attention to the group’s gendered regulation, violence, and widespread use of rape. Consequently, observers often argue that women are deceived by the organisation or seduced ...
The Cybercoaching of Terrorists: Cause for Alarm?
September 18, 2023
John Mueller examines the degree to which the cybercoaching of terrorists should be cause for concern, arguing that in many cases cybercoaches have little control over their amateurish charges. ...
Digital Decay? Tracing Change Over Time Among English-Language Islamic State Sympathizers on Twitter
September 18, 2023
Until 2016, Twitter was the online platform of choice for English-language Islamic State (IS) sympathizers. As a result of Twitter’s counter-extremism policies – including content removal – there has been a decline in activity by IS supporters. This outcome may suggest the company’s efforts have been effective, but a deeper analysis reveals a complex, nonlinear ...
Encrypted Jihad: Investigating the Role of Telegram App in Lone Wolf Attacks in the West
September 18, 2023
The study aims to capture links between the use of encrypted communication channel -Telegram and lone wolf attacks occurred in Europe between 2015-2016. To understand threads of ISIS communication on Telegram we used digital ethnography approach which consists of the self-observation of information flows on four of ISIS’s most celebrated telegram Channels. We draw on ...
“@ me if you need shoutout”: Exploring Women’s Roles in Islamic State Twitter Networks
September 18, 2023
This article investigates the social media content of women who are affiliated with the Islamic State. Throughout one year, ninety-three Twitter accounts were tracked to explore the patterns of engagement by pro–Islamic State women online and examine how these patterns illuminate the roles that pro–Islamic State women occupy on social media networks. The study reveals ...