1. N A T H A N S T E P H E N S O N
Tweets of Terrorists
2. ISIS Summary
ISIS: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
Al Qaeda splinter group of Sunni militants
Seeks to bring Muslim-inhabited areas under its political
control
4. From the Horse’s Mouth
Shapes their image directly through social media
We receive a lot of content directly from ISIS, as
opposed to through the lens of a journalist
They are creating a brand for themselves
7. Online Forums
Traditionally, terrorist groups used online forums to
disseminate information, communicate, and garner
support.
ISIS officials could easily control debate on these
forums by deleting certain posts and suspend
potentially troublesome users
8. Platforms Cont.
Twitter is more difficult to control, but provides
more ubiquitous message
Thousands of individual fighters have personal
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts
Despite large number of accounts, the campaign is
very deliberate and very coordinated
One of the ways the coordinate this campaign is
through an app called the Dawn of Glad Tidings
9. Dawn of Glad Tidings App
AKA “Dawn”
Official ISIS product promoted by the organization’s
top users
Advertised as a way to keep on latest news about the
group
Hundreds of users have signed up for the app
10. Dawn Cont.
First used in April 2014
Once signed up, the app posts tweets on behalf of
your account
Content is decided by individuals in ISIS’s social-
media operation
Tweets of links, pictures, and hashtags are posted by
everyone who has signed up for the app
Sometimes produces as many as 40,000 tweets per
day
11. Dawn App Cont.
Tweets made by the Dawn app are spread out to
avoid triggering Twitter’s spam-detection algorithms
12. Dawn App Cont.
Used to spread below image
Volume of tweets caused any search for “Baghdad” to
generate the image among its first results
Done to promote intimidating image
13. Intimidation
Various reports say that when ISIS invaded Iraq,
Iraqi police forces abandoned their uniforms,
dropped their weapons, and fled
The invasion was met with little resistence
Reportedly, partially due to the intimidating brand
ISIS has created and spread for itself through social
media
14. Organized Hashtag Campaigns
ISIS periodically enlists thousands of activists to
repetitively tweet hashtags at certain times of day so
that the hashtags trend
Skews results of Arabic Twitter account
@ActiveHashtags
15. @ActiveHashtags
Tweets the day’s top trending tags
Various accounts that do the same thing
Once ISIS hashtags make it into the streams, it can
result in hundreds of retweets per tweet
16. Recruit Support
ISIS uses social media campaign to recruit support
Increasing number of foreign fighters seeking to join
ISIS
Current reports estimate that thousands of foreign
fighters (including approximately 100 Americans)
are currently involved in ISIS conflict in Syria
17. Narrowcasting
One of the ways ISIS achieves this is through
narrowcasting
They develop specific content for various purposes
In one video, the leader of ISIS vocalizes a message
targeted specifically at children; he calls for “the
youths around the globe” to join his cause
Another video features a Canadian turned ISIS
fighter attempting to appeal to Westerners
18. Online Support
Certain groups with no official ties to ISIS have taken
it upon themselves to further enhance online
presence
Translate and repost ISIS content in various
langauges
Adapt content posted by ISIS to better target
Westerners
19. Reaction from Twitter
Twitter periodically suspends ISIS accounts, but
more accounts continue to open
New accounts are quickly created and regain
thousands of followers in a matter of hours
20. Conclusion
ISIS uses social media to develop a brand for
themselves, spread their message, intimidate their
enemies, and recruit support
Coordinated, effective utilization of social media is
an integral part of their organization
