海角大神

Having a conversation with an Islamic State fighter is, for self-evident reasons, hard to come by.

But in one聽Tumblr account, a former Dutch citizen who is now an ISIS fighter, documented his life as an Islamic fighter, including creating a question and answer forum for the public to ask about what it鈥檚 like to be a fighter for the Islamic State.

The Tumblr account has now been removed.聽

But Robert Mackey of The New York Times聽documented some of the forum before it was deleted:

Members of the Islamic State have had chilling success recruiting young fighters from around the world to join them in Syria through social media, leading many social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram to ban any jihadist accounts.

While no official policy has been instated banning Islamic State content from the Internet, many social media accounts respond to complaints from users by blocking accounts.聽

Should jihadi fighters be allowed to voice their perspectives online?

Facebook says no.聽

鈥淭here is no place for terrorists on Facebook,鈥� Facebook spokesman Andrew Souvall told Wired Magazine. 鈥淲e work aggressively to ensure that we do not have terrorists or terror groups using the site, and we also remove any content that praises or supports terrorism.鈥澛�

To some, that decision may sound like a violation of the US First Amendment, but it is also is a stringent security measure to prevent the Islamic State from propagating fear and recruiting new followers. A report from the Brookings Institute found that between September and December 2014, ISIS used roughly 46,000 Twitter accounts.聽

As 海角大神's Warren Richey reported:

Twitter, however, has been less willing to ban all jihadi online activity.聽

鈥淭witter continues to strongly support freedom of expression and diverse perspectives鈥�but it also has clear rules governing what is permissible,鈥� a Twitter spokesperson told The Washington Post. 鈥淭he use of Twitter by violent extremist groups to threaten horrific acts of depravity and violence is of grave concern and against our policies, period.鈥�

Following the graphic beheading of James Foley in August 2014, Twitter suspended over 10,000 ISIS accounts. Many accounts, however, are hard to catch. Jihadist users who have been suspended often reappear with a new account with a similar name but one additional letter or number. 聽Some Twitter users have created public rosters to document potential ISIS accounts.

As Mr. Mackey wrote in his column about the Dutch fighter for the聽Islamic State, "the archive of questions and answers offers a fascinating glimpse into the thinking of a Western-educated jihadist who has been transformed in the past two years from a skeptic of the Islamic State to an active member."聽

But there's nothing left on the Tumblr account.聽