, , , ,

Social Media: ISIS's newest weapon of choice

1:00 PM


Photo courtesy from The Daily Beast. 


By: Kristen Watson

You've all heard about them. You've all sat in your sad dorm room and considered the possibility of another war with them. You've all seen them on the nightly news. But what you might not realize, is that ISIS is using and abusing the world's addiction to the internet and more specifically, social media, to recruit and terrorize Americans just like yourself. 

Why should you be concerned? Social media been around long enough for something to have already happened, right? Wrong. According to an article published by The Daily Beast, the radical group, once forced to spread their propaganda through online forums and secret message boards that only reached a handful of supporters has only recently taken hold of the powerful tool many marketers are already using, Twitter. 

Twitter, one of the most popular social media platforms to date and has the ability to make a photo, video or statement world-famous in a matter of hours, is now in the hands of religious extremists of the most dangerous kind. The terror group has harnessed and used it's power to spread their propaganda, like the video of the American journalist being beheaded. Since their sudden rise to power in the Twitter world, there has been an overflowing amount of English language recruitment videos as well as translated propaganda.  

According to an article posted on Fox News Insider, a new hot debate is whether or not it is the social media company's responsibility to remove images, statuses and videos of war crimes. The push for these companies to delete or deactivate known terrorists' accounts has become an overwhelming topic of discussion in recent weeks. 


ISIS is strategically targeting the young and rebellious American culture through their use of Twitter. There are already as many as 3,000 westerners fighting alongside ISIS. The ball is now somewhat in America's court, with companies like Twitter and Facebook. What will be their next move? 

This blog can also be seen on the Eagle Strategies Blog. 

You Might Also Like

0 comments

Pages

About me

Blog Archive