The group has shown the ability to use social media to spread and legitimize its ideology and goals, warns Brookings. It also uses the medium to fundraise and recruit young jihadists from far-flung countries like the United States.
Indeed, 鈥渢hrough a network of provincial-level accounts and several central media departments, the Islamic State had significantly outperformed any other militant group on Twitter,鈥� through August, 2014.
The militants' 鈥渃oordinated release of particularly significant content鈥� has earned them an 鈥渋mpressively large viewership,鈥� Lister adds. One YouTube video the group released was viewed by 57,000 people and redistributed at an average of 807 tweets per hour.
They have also increasingly focused on English-language production of social media.
But the group's widespread use of social networks also makes it vulnerable to undermining and attack. The group鈥檚 bitter battle with Al Qaeda, for example, played out online, and was harmful to Islamic State interests.
The US could counter the group's online presence and 鈥渃hallenge the organizations religio-political doctrine through 鈥榤ole鈥� accounts within the jihad community online,鈥� the report notes.
The US began an aggressive attack on the militants' social media presence in August, taking down many of its Twitter accounts, though this also has the impact of removing an 鈥渆xtremely valuable source of intelligence,鈥� argues Lister.
Using paid moles with extensive knowledge of Islamic creed and jurisprudence to infiltrate Islamic State social media accounts 鈥渃ould be doubly effective,鈥� the report concludes, 鈥渋f the same sources were used to introduce divisions within the broader online jihadi community.鈥�
