User:Kevindphan/sandbox

Article Draft - For Edit

Group article for ISIS Group

Article Draft is here:User:Breezelily/sandbox

Draft your article

We chose to improve an existing article, Terrorism and Social Media, which is an extremely short article with only 29 references. Within this article, there are several components that could be included to fully reflect the way terrorism operates within social media platforms; more specifically, we would like to add extensive information regarding ISIS’s methodology in advancing their goals through these mediums. Terrorist groups like the Islamic State have become one of the most active users of social media; they have gone on to successfully recruit members through platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Specifically, we hope to cover the topics of ISIS’ social media recruitment strategy, their own social media network, Twitter’s response to their propaganda, and their internal ban on social media for their fighters. Information for these topics will be highlighted in the articles mentioned in last week’s sources assignment. Further, we will cite specific hashtags and analyze the type of videos and propaganda that they created and how it differs from other terrorist groups in the past.

We wish to expand on how ISIS used social media as their online recruitment tool, discuss the potential impact of that, and most importantly, discuss what could be the possible solution to such issues. The references from the original article are mostly from non academic sources like websites and newspapers, as we expand on this article, we will also review the sources, generalize more information from academic sources like literature review and research papers.

Our proposed edit is listed below in the following section in italics. We were able to double the section length by describing some of the key information previously missing from the section.

AQAP and Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/DAESH)

Islamic State has emerged as one of the most potent users of social media. In many respects, Islamic State learned their propaganda craft from al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). However, IS quickly eclipsed its mentor, deploying a whole range of narratives, images and political proselytizing through various social media platforms.[15] The particular videos that ISIS often posts include executions of “enemies of the Caliphate” which often consists of westerners or Jordanian nationals. Most infamously, an executioner named Jihadi John was seen in many of these videos prior to his death in 2017. (Citation) A study by Berger and Morgan estimated that at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by ISIS supporters between September and December 2014.[16] However, as ISIS supporters regularly get suspended and then easily create new, duplicate accounts,[15] counting ISIS Twitter accounts over a few months can overestimate the number of unique people represented by 20–30%.[17] In 2015, Twitter was able to ban 125,000 ISIS sympathetic accounts. Further, an encrypted messaging platform called Telegram banned dozens of pro-ISIS channels.(Citation Article 2)

In response to Twitter and other social media platforms banning their accounts, ISIS has made their own platform to increase their ability to spread their message. Without the intervention of corporate actors such as Twitter, ISIS has been able to freely spread their messages on their own platforms and websites. In 2017, Europol, the European Police, was able to uncover 52 unique online ISIS networks containing over 2,000 unique extremist items. (Citation Article 2)

However, as the November 2015 attacks in Paris demonstrate, IS also uses old-fashioned methods of communication and propaganda. Lewis notes that the attacks in Paris represent the sort of 'propaganda in action' which was a method developed by the 19th century anarchists in Europe. The November 2015 IS attacks were perpetrated without prior warning, largely because the operatives met face-to-face and used other non-digital means of communication. Additionally, it is common for ISIS to claim responsibility of many terror attacks around the world such as the Paris Attacks, the Florida night club shooting, and the Las Vegas attack (citation).

Ironically, ISIS has undergone procedures to ban their supporters from using social media after they have already been radicalized. Citing mantras such as “command something that the soul dislikes, obeying them is obligatory,” ISIS has been able to keep their followers off the internet. (Citation Article 3).

Finalize Your Topic/Find Your Sources

Here is the text pasted into the talk page of Talk:Terrorism and social media

We are planning to edit this article and insert more information about ISIS' use of Social Media since they have been able to use it as an effective recruitment tool. Further, we also want to expand the article and add a section of the grou

• • • Article: Social Media Strategy of ISIS
      1. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00396338.2014.985436?journalCode=tsur20
      2. Provides an in-depth look at ISIS’ overall social media strategy and investigates its’ effectiveness
    • Article: ISIS created its own social network to spread propaganda
      1. https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/04/isis-created-its-own-social-network-to-spread-propaganda
      2. This article details ISIS’ effort to work against social media platforms banning their material. Adding evidence from this article would be helpful to explain that ISIS is making it’s own social media platform
    • Article: Why ISIS is winning the social media War
      • https://www.wired.com/2016/03/isis-winning-social-media-war-heres-beat/

• • 1. This article explains the organization’s success and draws parallels to other terrorist organizations such as the KKK in the early 20th century.
  • Article: ISIS bans fighters from using social media
    1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-ban-facebook-youtube-twitter-instagram-social-media-fighters-spying-dissent-islamic-state-a7803406.html
    2. This article provides an internal look at the operations of ISIS and their contradictory decision to ban the use of Social Media among some of their members

Choose Possible Topics

I collaborated with my group which is covering ISIS. We compiled our answers on the following user's sandbox User:Breezelily/sandbox.

I have copied the possible topics here:

1. Expand the Propaganda Section and the Social Media Section on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Page
   • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant#Propaganda_and_social_media
   • This section has very minimal information on the types of propaganda that ISIS utilizes to recruit and spread their message. It does not include aspects such as the “Dark Web” and gruesome footage that they have published.

1. Expand Social Media and Terrorist groups on Terrorism and social media Page
   • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_and_social_media
   • Adding more links to the section, adding sub-headers specific to ISIS and their hashtags
2. Adding a ISIS Social Media Recruitment Page
   • Add the timeline of their unique method of recruitment, and how it came to grow its traction. There was no specific page detailing how this movement unfolded, so this page would be dedicated to this movement and its tactics, main perpetrators, and any opposition from any global leaders. A section can be added about the counter-movement and how governments are funding initiatives to block their campaigns from infiltrating their borders.
3. Islamic State Hacking Division
   • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_Hacking_Division
   • This page is short and does not include the specific departments or people that are responsible for hacking/devising their tactics. We can also include a section comparing their tactics to other terrorism groups to showcase why ISIS has been so successful.

Article Evaluation #1

Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge

• Basic Notes:
  • many sources of origin, may be slightly unclear
  • not originally tied to ALS at first
  • connection to golfers
  • many celebrities participated and challenged each other
  • rules were very standardized
  • covered both the success of the event and criticism
  • raised about $100M for top charity
  • also benefited more than one charity
  • criticized for being a "stunt" where it was self-congratulatory
    

Main focus questions: Was this article biased?
This article presents both the successes and criticisms of the event. Overall, it paints a pretty positive picture. The article cites many specific events. For example, in the discussion about the origin of the movement, the article cites many different early possible origins of the movement instead of just claiming that a single movement was the genesis of the entire movement. Additionally, each on of the sources is properly cited to reputable websites. However, when I clicked through some of the citation links, a few of the citations did not connect directly to those events. For example, I clicked on a link that took me to Nature.com and presented me with an article describing the Nature of Viral Altruism. I found this to be slightly misleading because although it was relevant, it didn't provide support for the sentence that it was attached to. Overall, this article was relatively well constructed and unbiased.