"[...] this ISPI report aims to investigate the current landscape of jihadist online communication, including original empirical analysis. In doing so, the volume does not interpret the internet as a shapeless monolith but tries to highlight the opportunities and limitations of different digital pla
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tforms. It also explores the current Italian-language jihadist scenario, thus filling a gap in the analysis of this phenomenon. Specific attention is also placed on potential measures and initiatives to address the threat of online violent extremism." (Introduction, page 7)
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"Based on ethnographic research on Islamist buzzers – social media political operators tasked with making particular online conversation subjects trend – in Indonesia, this article details the process of how the proliferation of insensitive message in both the online and offline realms plays a r
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ole in mobilizing those sympathetic to religious fundamental-ism. As this research shows, the interviewed buzzers were one of the driving forces behind the massive success of the fundamentalist Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI) as they mobilized people to participate in the organization’s political rallies between 2016 and 2017. Driven by altruistic volunteerism and sense of community, these actors go beyond their duty as click-farmers. They maintain regular contact with sympathizers and convincing them to revive broken weblinks, hang banners on streets as part of astroturfing campaigns and gather masses to attend offline events. Detailing the activity and spatiality of buzzers in crafting new online and offline spaces as part of their innovative bottom-up propaganda management, this research concludes that right-wing political mobilization and radicalization are not simply the product of ideology but are catalyzed by technically and socially tedious, mediated messaging campaigns." (Abstract)
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"Der sogenannte Islamische Staat nutzt in seiner Kommunikationsstrategie vor allem eine Form von direkter Zielgruppenansprache über eigens produzierte Videos und Nachrichtenkanäle. Die Verwendung von massenmedialen Multiplikatoren ist zwar weiterhin ein wichtiger Bestandteil zur Verbreitung von An
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gst, die der Terrorismus evozieren will; allerdings eröffnet diese Möglichkeit der direkten Kommunikation eine völlig neue Ansprache der Rezipienten. Bei der Verbreitung über traditionelle Massenmedien muss seitens der Terroristen eine ausgleichende Berichterstattung in Kauf genommen werden – das klassische Medien-Framing. Dagegen können bei direkter Ansprache relevanter Publika strategische Kommunikator-Frames und Narrative gesetzt werden. Über die Wirkung von Propaganda wird nach wie vor debattiert. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob diese Botschaften grundlegend anders auf Rezipienten wirken als Medienberichte, in denen ebenfalls ideologische Botschaften kommuniziert werden. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird in einem experimentellen Design die Wirkung terroristischer Kommunikationsinhalte auf die Emotionen der Rezipienten untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen unter anderem, dass strategische Kommunikator-Frames negative Emotionen verstärken können. Politisches Wissen und Themeninteresse können jedoch diese Reaktionen und damit die Hauptwirkungskomponente des Terrorismus – die Angst – reduzieren." (Abstract)
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"The Islamic State's media strategy allows for a message that has been crafted by a handful of IS propaganda agents to be disseminated by a few primary distributors, who in turn can reach thousands of unaffiliated sympathizers, and therefore millions of Twitter users. By means of a conclusion, this
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chapter offers four short considerations on countering some of the different actors involved in the process. First, given the highly centralized nature of IS media production, which is most likely spearheaded by a handful of well-trained, technologically savvy and talented individuals, IS media production efforts would be very sensitive to the removal of these individuals [...] Second, although there is some anecdotal evidence that banning social media accounts is an effective way to curtail the activities of unaffiliated sympathizers, relying solely on social media companies to combat the spread of extremist material on their platforms not only raises questions regarding free speech, but would also give these companies the power to control public knowledge and discourse [...] Third, and on a related note, none of the so-called "lone wolf" attacks in Western countries were perpetrated by individuals who were actively involved in disseminating IS propaganda. In fact, it may well be that distributing jihadist material is an alternate mode of participation for individuals who are unwilling to engage in actual violence [...] Finally, although the Islamic State's military defeat appears imminent, one of the greatest mistakes of the "War on Terror" was the belief that the destruction of al-Qaeda's training camps and leadership would lead to the demise of the group, its affiliated movements and its ideology." (Conclusion)
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"Die Medien und die breite Öffentlichkeit zeigen sich oftmals verwundert über die Perfektion der IS-Propaganda. Dabei wird übersehen, dass der Medienkrieg des Pseudo-Islamischen Staats auf einer ‚Großen Erzählung', einer ‚Meistererzählung' basiert, an der dschihadistische Organisationen se
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it beinahe 40 Jahren arbeiten. Die Entwicklung der dschihadistischen Propaganda lässt sich in fünf Phasen unterteilen. Die erste fällt mit dem 1979 bis 1989 gegen die Sowjetunion geführten Afghanistankrieg zusammen. Mehrere in dieser Zeit erschienene Filme setzen den von Abdallah Azzam, dem ‚Vater des modernen Dschihad', theoretisch begründeten Märtyrerkult ins Bild. Die zweite Phase umfasst den Bürgerkrieg in Bosnien von 1992 bis 1995: die Videopropaganda wird professionalisiert und erstmals werden Muslime außerhalb dschihadistischer Kreise erreicht. Die dritte Phase, 1996 bis 2002, fällt in die Jahre des zweiten Aufenthalts Bin Ladens in Afghanistan und Pakistan und kulminiert in den Anschlägen des 11. September 2001. Al-Qaida versucht vorzugeben, die einzig wahre muslimische Glaubensgemeinschaft zu sein. Die vierte Phase nimmt ihren Anfang mit der US-Invasion im Irak 2003 und dauert bis etwa 2007 an. Sie zeichnet sich durch eine Globalisierung der Propaganda, eine starke Präsenz im Web und das Auf treten des sogenannten ‚Pop-Dschihad' aus. Die fünfte und bis heute andauernde Phase beginnt 2010 und fällt mit zwei entscheidenden Entwicklungen zusammen: der durch die Entstehung des Web 2.0 bedingten massenhaften Nutzung der sozialen Netzwerke und dem wachsenden Einfluss des Dschihadismus im Zuge der Umwälzungen in der arabischen Welt." (Seite 147)
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"Social media is used by al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and ISIL in Africa. The importance of cross-media communications to the strategies of all three groups is underlined by the existence of dedicated branches for media planning, namely al-Shabaab’s al-Kata’ib, Boko Haram’s Media Office of West Afri
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ca Province and ISIL’s Al Hayat Media Center. In part driven by growing Internet access in Africa and on-going technological advancement, it is clear that the use of social media by all three groups has increased in recent years – although this inevitably varies by geographical area depending on the level of ICT penetration. There appears to be a spectrum of sophistication across the three groups in relation to their social media strategies: ISIL’s strategy is more advanced than those of its two counterparts, which may be linked to its more far-reaching and international support base. While still less sophisticated overall than those of ISIL and al-Shabaab, Boko Haram’s social media strategy has become more professionalised since its declaration of allegiance to ISIL in 2015, whether due to the direct or indirect influence of ISIL’s concerted online activities." (Summary of key findings, page 65-66)
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"La propagande de guerre de l'EI adopte les codes des genres cinématographiques afin de fictionnaliser le fait guerrier et dissimuler l'fenvers du décors. Cette fantasmagorie surréaliste fonctionne selon un double regime de fascination et de stimulation des pulsions de mort qui ont pour effet de
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susciter des vocations djihadistes. Le pan institutionnel de la propagande de l'EI se presente plutot comme un discours rationnel en adoptant le reportage comme régime d'fecriture de la vérité. Cette caution de transparence d'fun Etat-providence, équitable et qui offre toutes les bonnes conditions de vie masque l'entreprise totalitaire et les exactions institutionnalisees de l'EI et le présente comme un espace citoyen et familial. Ces deux genres de mises en scene sont sous-tendues par des protocoles de desinformation singuliers qui confortent leur efficacité. D'abord, le jeux avec l'énonciation qui ne permet pas de déceler un message clair et principal dans les vidéos de l'EI participe de l'ambigüité foncière de son discours et permet de l'interpréter de plusieurs manières possibles. Ensuite, l'estompage des temporalités et la confusion géographique décontextualisent le propos et rendent possible la désinformation des recepteurs. En outre, la production de normes différenciées du djhad classique presente l'EI comme une nouvelle utopie et rend son idéologie extensible a de nouveaux publics. Enfin, l'association inextricable de registres disparates : le religieux et le politique, le transcendant et l'immanent, le réel et le discours sur le rél, le personnel et le collectif, etc. favorise l'identification d'un nombre plus grand de récepteurs au discours de l'EI. Tous ces procédés permettent à l'organisation de proposer des réponses adaptées à des publics dissemblables et ainsi recruter massivement. La désinformation est constitutive de tout discours de propagande mais la caractéristique inédite de celui de l'EI c'est cette hybridation des niveaux de significations hétérogènes qui rend son efficacité redoutable et qui nécessite, de ce fait, de l'examiner dans une recherche plus approfondie." (Conclusion)
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"Seib traces how terrorism has proliferated and increased significantly in menace in the relatively brief period between the rise of al-Qaeda and the creation of Islamic State. With close attention to the linkages between media, religion, and violence, the book offers incisive analysis of how organi
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zations such as Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram operate and reflects on how terrorism may continue to evolve. Seib argues that twenty-first-century terrorism is enabled by new media and depends on social networks as connective tissue, while interacting simultaneously with religion and socio-economic and political grievances. As Terrorism Evolves prescribes new measures for counterterrorism efforts, underscores the importance of soft power, and makes a strong case for recognizing that we have entered an era of terrorism of undetermined duration." (Publisher description)
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"The study is divided into three parts, the first of which describes the Islamic State’s publishing house, Maktabat al-Himma, and its activities and offers a rough chronology of when the group published various works. The second part examines the group’s classroom textbooks, drawing comparisons
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with the Saudi religious curriculum and highlighting the Islamic State’s unique program of “ISization” that makes them especially lethal. The paper’s third part features a deep dive into other literature produced by the group, including book-length editions, manuals of ritual observance, and instructions to fighters, as well as shorter pamphlets. The paper closes with a series of concluding observations and policy recommendations, as well as appendices that include a list of the works surveyed, translations by the author of selections from the classroom textbooks, images of textbook covers, and a glossary of terminology IS uses in its literature." (Executive summary, page xi)
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"An app called Telegram is the new hot thing for jihadists to disseminate their propaganda. Terror organizations like the 'Islamic State' (IS) also use this app to win over German us-ers. jugendschutz.net documented a vast amount of graphic content like beheading videos – anyone can use his smartp
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hone to access such content. So far, the provider has taken only little action to protect his young users." (Introduction)
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"This Research Paper aims to analyse in depth the global propaganda strategy of the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) by looking at the methods through which this grand strategy is carried out as well as the objectives that IS wants to achieve through it. The authors first discuss IS’ growth mode
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l, explaining why global expansion and recruitment of foreign fighters are pivotal to IS success. Having in mind this critical role, the authors then explore the narratives and themes used by the group to mobilise foreign fighters and jihadists groups. Third, the paper analyses how IS deploys its narratives in those territories where it has established a foothold. Fourth, it outlines IS’ direct engagement strategy and how it is used to facilitate allegiance of other jihadist groups. The final section of the paper offers a menu of policy options that stakeholders can implement to counter IS’ global propaganda efforts." (Abstract)
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