Posted on 12/08/2015 11:50:14 AM PST by mbarker12474
Digital Counterinsurgency How to Marginalize the Islamic State Online By Jared Cohen The Islamic State, or ISIS, is the first terrorist group to hold both physical and digital territory: in addition to the swaths of land it controls in Iraq and Syria, it dominates pockets of the Internet with relative impunity.... ... in late 2014, 46,000 Twitter accounts openly supported the group. Back then, strategies for fighting ISIS online centered on simply removing such accounts....
... the gamut from popular public platforms to private chat rooms to encrypted messaging systems such as WhatsApp, Kik, Wickr, Zello, and Telegram... ... churn out professional-grade videos and advertisements. ... ... Unlike al Qaeda, which comprises a loose cluster of isolated cells, ISIS resembles something akin to a corporation... fighters, recruiters, videographers, jihadist wives, ... replicated online, where ISIS operates as a pyramid consisting of four types of digital fighters.
At the top sits ISIS' central command for digital operations, ... trickles down to the second tier of the pyramid: ISIS' digital rank and file.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignaffairs.com ...
Digital Counterinsurgency How to Marginalize the Islamic State Online By Jared Cohen The Islamic State, or ISIS, is the first terrorist group to hold both physical and digital territory: in addition to the swaths of land it controls in Iraq and Syria, it dominates pockets of the Internet with relative impunity.... ... putting the total number of foreign recruits at around 20,000, nearly 4,000 of whom hail from Western countries. Many of these recruits made initial contact with ISIS and its ideology via the Internet. .... ... For example, before the group captured the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014, it rolled out an extensive online campaign with text, images, and videos that threatened the city’s residents with unparalleled death and destruction.... Foiling ISIS' efforts on the Internet will thus make the group less successful on the battlefield. To date, however, most digital efforts against ISIS have been too limited, .... ... in late 2014, 46,000 Twitter accounts openly supported the group. Back then, strategies for fighting ISIS online centered on simply removing such accounts.... ... the gamut from popular public platforms to private chat rooms to encrypted messaging systems such as WhatsApp, Kik, Wickr, Zello, and Telegram... ... churn out professional-grade videos and advertisements. ... ... Unlike al Qaeda, which comprises a loose cluster of isolated cells, ISIS resembles something akin to a corporation... fighters, recruiters, videographers, jihadist wives, ... replicated online, where ISIS operates as a pyramid consisting of four types of digital fighters. At the top sits ISIS' central command for digital operations, ... trickles down to the second tier of the pyramid: ISIS' digital rank and file.
... Islamic State supporters hijacked trending ... account appear more influential than it really is, they purchase fake followers from social media marketing firms.... Then there are the vast numbers of radical sympathizers across the globe, who constitute ISIS' third type of digital fighter. ... helping the group disseminate its radical message and convert people to its cause. ... engage potential recruits .... .... ISIS' fourth type of digital fighter is nonhuman: the tens of thousands of fake accounts that automate the dissemination of its content and multiply its message.... ... The best strategy for fighting it online, however, is something else: marginalization. ... Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC... neither disbanded nor entirely defeated, but its ranks have largely been driven into the jungle. ... ISIS will be neutered as a digital threat when its online presence becomes barely noticeable. The group would find it either too risky or tactically impossible to commandeer control of social media ... . It would be forced to operate primarily on the so-called dark Web, the part of the Internet not indexed by mainstream search engines and accessible to only the most knowledgeable users. Compelling terrorist organizations to operate in secret does make plots more difficult to intercept, but in the case of ISIS, that is a tradeoff worth making. ... The Islamic State will be neutered as a digital threat when its online presence becomes barely noticeable. ... First, they should separate the human-run accounts on social networks from the automated ones. Next, they should zero in on ISIS' digital central command, identifying and suspending the specific accounts responsible for setting strategy and giving orders to the rest of its online army. .... The suspension of accounts needs to be targeted... ISIS has learned to protect its digital leadership from suspension by keeping its activities hidden behind strict privacy settings. ... companies as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to flag more than 46,000 pieces of violent or hateful content for removal. That same year, YouTube took down approximately 14 million videos. In April 2015, Twitter announced that it had suspended 10,000 accounts linked to ISIS on a single day. ... That, in turn, will require mapping ISIS' network of accounts. One way law enforcement could make inroads into this digital network is by covertly infiltrating .... Once ISIS' online leadership has been separated from the rank and file... ... This is where counternarratives against violent extremism can come in.... Arab Center for Scientific Research and Humane Studies and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue... For maximum effect, these campaigns should be carefully targeted. An antiextremist video viewed by 50,000 of the right kinds of people will have a greater impact than one seen by 50 million random viewers. Consider Abdullah-X, a cartoon series .. ... Al Qaeda has taken pains to keep its digital operations secret and works under the cover of passwords, encryption, and rigid privacy settings. These tactics have made the group notoriously difficult to track, but they have also kept its digital footprint miniscule... ... governments should consider working with the news media to aggressively publicize arrests that result from covert infiltration of ISIS' online network. If any new account with which a digital soldier interacts carries the risk of being that of an undercover agent, it becomes exponentially more hazardous to recruit ... ... One is machine learning. Just as online advertisers can target ... algorithmic analysis to identify, map, and deactivate the accounts of terrorist supporters.... ... ... . All the online platforms ISIS uses have forum moderators, the equivalent of tribal leaders and sheiks. The technology companies that own these platforms have no interest in seeing their environments flooded with fake accounts and violent messages. They should therefore give these moderators the tools and training to keep their communities safe from extremist messaging.... .... In fact, however, the group is at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to resources and numbers. ... ... ...
How is it now, all of a sudden, everyone’s an expert on what to do about ISIS?
Bottom Line: Their dependence on digital media presents some spectacular opportunities for deception, disinformation and other forms of “Information Operations”...
I’d think that the proper first step would be to marginalize their protectors and enablers: liberal slime slugs.
I think we should have a serious discussion about the Islamic State being at war with us and should we officially declare war against them? And exactly who is ISIS? Who and what countries are behind it?
Agreed. But it won’t happen as long as President Valarie Jarrett is in charge.
ISIS is islam, the koran says to lie, cheat, kill the unbeliever where you find them. Every moslem reads that. Every moslem is the same. This is survival, kill or be killed. They will eventually get around to each and everyone of us.
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