I posted an article on
the Department of State's fight against ISIS, now known as the Islamic State,
back in March, well before ISIS became front page
news. In that article, I noted that the Department of State was using
social media, particularly Twitter, to discourage both members and potential
recruits from joining the ranks of ISIS. Now that it appears that the
United States is going to take increasing levels of military action against
ISIS, I thought that it was time to revisit Think Again Turn Away and its
slogan "Some Truths About Terrorism" in its Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr
and Youtube incarnations.
Here
is a screen capture showing State's anti-ISIS Twitter feed:
Here is a general idea of
the tone of the tweets which often provide links to media articles as backup
for the gist of the tweet:
Somehow, I'm not sure
that either members or the leadership of ISIS is going to care that Kurt
Eichenwald at Newsweek described ISIS as "the most
irreparably stupid jihadists ever to slaughter their way onto the international
stage" as shown on this tweet:
Here
is a screen capture showing State's anti-ISIS Facebook page:
Here is a general idea of
the tone of the postings:
Again, links are provided
in case the jihadis want to read about themselves in the mainstream western
media as shown here:
Here
is a screen capture showing State's anti-ISIS Tumblr page:
Here is a general idea of
the content:
Yet again, we find links to coverage of ISIS by western media
outlets:
Lastly, we have the Think
Again Turn Away YouTube channel which produces riveting and rather
disturbing videos like this one:
...and this one:
Given that the jihadists
refer to the United States and its allies as the "Crusaders" and that they believe that the western world is ideologically evil, what
are the odds that ISIS members and leadership or anyone that is radical enough
to consider joining the holy war in the new Islamic Caliphate really cares
about the negative coverage that they are getting from the Department of
State's social media campaign?
I would love to know exactly who these videos and tweets are supposed to be for. Who is the Audience? It's along the lines of a pop up ad for vodoo doll while going to Catholic church website and having clicked on the next mass time link. The guy that wants to know when he can next come to church and pray isnt exactly the type that would interested in a vodoo doll. I want to join ISIS and fight for Islam, but wait, my biggest enemy has some website and twitter feed i better look at first...really?
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