Over the past 2 years, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) increased its territory and gained access over two major cities, Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq—a region with more than six million inhabitants. Also, it has successfully inflicted deep wound on the western world with the attacks committed in the French capital on the evening of 13 November 2015 and reminded the world once more of their limitless barbarity and utter disregard for civilian lives.
Can we tell that its success is due to a military prowess or the incapability of the co-working governments to act properly? There is a dimension through which terrorists manage to gain access to people’s minds and enlarge the gasp of their propaganda to the most vulnerable – this dimension is the Internet and more precisely, the social networks.  
Twitter-Guns source : http://cyranchnews.com/4010/opinion-2/is-social-media-creating-an-isis-epidemic/#prettyPhoto
How they spread their propaganda?
The actions of “Islamic State” constitute war of ideas. This war is not fought on a separate front, but unfolds itself primarily on the Internet. Unlike the other terrorist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda, which usually use low quality amateurish videos smuggled to Arabic television stations so they could be distributed across the globe, “Daesh” has put in place much more sophisticated methods in order to circulate its propaganda. Thus, most of their films are with high-definition quality and shot with drones and DSLR cameras. These videos are directly uploaded to social medias and announced to their followers and potential targets via tweets and hashtags. IS supporters and fighters have used Facebook, Twitter, Ask.fm, Pinterest, YouTube, WordPress, Kik, WhatsApp, and Tumblr, to reach new audiences. In terms of numbers, according to Europol 100,000 tweets a day are pumped out from 45,000 to 50,000 accounts linked to the organization.
Furthermore, ISIS has created its own social network for jihadists called “Kilafahbook”. It is being hosted in Egypt and it is mainly used to keep jihadists in touch. Unfortunately, there is no legal rule allowing the authorities to shut it down.
Who are they targeting?
The main target group of the influence of the islamists are vulnerable young people who are experiencing gaps in communication. The videos and photos posted on the Interned and used as a bait, reflect two purposely altered sides of the jihadist’s life. On one hand, we can find the utopic one, promising a better life for those joining ISIS, including money, friends and most importantly understanding and place to belong. On the other hand, there is the promise of adventures with the glorification of the warrior lifestyle and an opportunity to fight.  Furthermore, a video for deaf and mute Muslims calling for all disabled Muslims in Europe to join jihad, has been released by the IS media. These videos and photos, with combination with online chat and regular posts and tweets, are used for brainwashing and attracting future jihadi brides and fighters on the side of “Daesh”. As a consequence, over 4,500 westerners coming from the US and Europe joined IS according a US government report.
How to restrain the influence of ISIS on the Internet?
One of the ways is deleting the existing accounts on every possible social network. The hacktivist group Anonymous managed to take down more than 3,800 ISIS Twitter accounts in the wake of the Paris attacks. Also, on 1 July 2015 a new Europe-wide police unit was set up and run by the European police agency Europol to scour the Internet for the ring leaders behind Islamic State’s social media propaganda campaign. The police works directly with social media companies to identify the most important accounts operating across the net.
Still, all these efforts to establish control over the access of the terrorists to social networks will be meaningless if there is no parallel work to contact and increase the awareness among the targets of the propaganda. Agencies should focused on finding those who are at risk of radicalization and develop a systematic peer-to-peer anti-extremism strategy with the objective of destroying the false image created by ISIS.
 


 photoAleksandar-Mihail ATANASOV 
Etudiant en Master II Droit de l’économie numérique, je suis intéressé par les tendances actuelles du numérique et de l’impact que celles-ci ont sur le monde juridique, notamment du point de vue du droit de la propriété intellectuelle.
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