Public Affairs Professor: social media is one of ISIS’s strongest weapons
A public affairs professor following ISIS’s use of social media said Sunday it’s one of the group’s strongest weapons.
Dr. Edin Mujkic teaches in the School of Public Affairs at University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He specializes in homeland security and has been closely following developments involving the terrorist group ISIS.
The U.S. and a coalition of countries have started air strikes against the terrorist group based in Syria. ISIS is behind the beheadings of journalists and now an aid worker.
Recruiters for the organization post pictures on social media sites of ISIS members playing videos games and what they ate for dinner. One propaganda piece for the group is modeled after a poster for the popular video game “Call of Duty.”
“They need to portray themselves to the recruits that they are actually ordinary guys,” said Mujkic.”The people who are in charge of propaganda in those groups like ISIS, they are very well educated. A lot of them lived in the West. They know how social media functions, how people perceive the media in the West.”
Social media sites like Twitter and YouTube have been removing and filtering content put out by the organization and its followers. However, it’s been a difficult fight online.
“They don’t have anyone that controls them. By the time they put something on YouTube or Twitter, by the time YouTube and Twitter filter it out, it’s already out there,” said Mujkic.
In an interview with CNN, former FBI agent Ali Soufan said it’s hard to control.
“You have to monitor every account. You have to monitor every social media post, every tweet, and then you have to basically investigate and see if this is for real or is it not?” said Soufan.
Mujkic said terrorist groups used to be somewhat limited in their access to the outside world. However, the internet and then social media has changed everything.
“It’s much easier to access potential recruits in other parts of the world because the world became smaller,” said Mujkic.
The U.S. has launched a counter campaign on social media sites to try to steer away possible recruits from the organization. Mujkic said the problem is people who believe in ISIS’s cause will filter out the videos.
Mujkic thinks ISIS’s biggest downfall will be that the group is too extreme. He points to Al Qaeda, a terrorism group that he says has distanced itself from ISIS because the group is too extreme. He said that in the end, that could turn away possible recruits.
