ISIS

by Jessica Stern

  6.All apps by the company were terminated on Google’s app store, but some were still available via Amazon.com as of October 28, 2014. For example, “AKSSWA,” http://www.amazon.com/x627-x643-x633-x648-AKSSWAR/dp/B00IT07W4U/ref=sr_1_2?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1414528220&sr=1-2 and “Quran Graphics,” http://www.amazon.com/MAWLAH-Company-Quran-Graphics/dp/B00JV18GBY/ref=sr_1_5?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1414528220&sr=1-5.

  7.The app was available from Google Play, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pashaeer.myapp, prior to its suspension on June 20, 2014.

  8.Analysis of the Android app performed by Justin Seitz, author of Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters (n.p.: No Starch Press, 2014).

  9.An account created by J. M. Berger was used to sign up for the app and track its behavior.

  10.“New Pro-Islamic State of Iraq And Syria (ISIS) ‘News’ App for Android, Available at Google Play Store,” Cyber and Jihad Lab, Middle East Media Research Institute, April 24, 2014, http://cjlab.memri.org/lab-projects/tracking-jihadi-terrorist-use-of-social-media/new-pro-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-syria-isis-news-app-for-android-available-at-google-play-store/.

  11.Analysis of the app and its behavior is based on more than 100,000 tweets specifically identified as originating with the app by approximately more than 3,000 accounts retrieved from Twitter by J. M. Berger in June 2014 and in October 2014. These samples are considerably less than the total output of the app, and the number of accounts is also likely a conservative estimate.

  12.“New Pro-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) ‘News’ App for Android, Available at Google Play Store.”

  13.J. M. Berger, “How ISIS Games Twitter,” Atlantic, June 16, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-social-media-strategy/372856/.

  14.http://t.co/fh8ZMgPFQn, accessed November 2, 2014.

  15.Data collected in June 2014.

  16.Shalom Bear, “IDF’s Operation ‘Protective Edge’ Begins Against Gaza,” Jewish Press, July 8, 2014, http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/idfs-operation-protective-edge-begins-against-gaza/2014/07/08/.

  17.Congress-Edits, Twitter account, https://twitter.com/congressedits.

  18.Jovi Umawing, “Twitter’s Bane: Bad Bots,” Malwarebytes Unpacked blog, June 10, 2014, https://blog.malwarebytes.org/social-engineering/2014/06/twitters-bane-bad-bots/.

  19.The “ghost” bots were first brought to the attention of coauthor J. M. Berger by Twitter user @hlk01. Subsequent analysis of the ghostbots revealed the existence of additional bot networks.

  20.Catherine O’Donnell, “New Study Quantifies Use of Social Media in Arab Spring,” University of Washington, September 12, 2011, www.washington.edu/news/2011/09/12/new-study-quantifies-use-of-social-media-in-arab-spring/.

  21.Jack Shenker, “Egyptian Army Retakes Tahrir Square,” Guardian, August 1, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/01/egypt-army-tahrir-square.

  22.Blake Hounshell, “The Revolution Will Be Tweeted,” Foreign Policy, June 20, 2011, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/20/the_revolution_will_be_tweeted.

  23.“Tunisia: President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali Forced Out,” BBC Africa, January 14, 2011, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12195025; David Kirkpatrick, “Egypt Erupts in Jubilation as Mubarak Steps Down,” New York Times, February 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html?pagewanted=all.

  24.“Tethered by History,” Economist, July 5, 2014, http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21606286-failures-arab-spring-were-long-time-making-tethered-history.

  25.Marc Lynch, Deen Freelon, and Sean Aday, “Blogs and Bullets: Syria’s Socially Mediated Civil War,” USIP Peaceworks Report no. 91, 2014; Adam Rawnsley, “Be Very Skeptical—A Lot of Your Open-Source Intel Is Fake,” Medium blog, November 1, 2014, https://medium.com/war-is-boring/be-very-skeptical-a-lot-of-your-open-source-intel-is-fake-5e4a5d5a9195; J. M. Berger, “Syria’s Socially Mediated Civil War,” IntelWire, January 22, 2014, http://news.intelwire.com/2014/01/syrias-socially-mediated-civil-war.html.

  26.Brain Fishman and Joseph Felter, “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq,” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, January 2, 2007, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/al-qaidas-foreign-fighters-in-iraq-a-first-look-atthesinjar-records; Lieutenant Colonel Joel Ray, “ ‘Blowback’—Iraq Comes to Syria,” The Caravan Hoover Institution, February 23, 2012, http://www.hoover.org/research/blowback-iraq-comes-syria.

  27.For an example of regime-sponsored activities, see Noah Shachtman and Michael Kennedy, “The Kardashian Look-Alike Trolling for Assad,” Daily Beast, October 17, 2014, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/17/the-kardashian-look-a-like-trolling-for-assad.html. The account mentioned in the story is part of a large and highly organized network.

  28.Jeffery Carr, “In OSINT, All Sources Aren’t Created Equal,” Digital Dao blog, November 24, 2014, http://jeffreycarr.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-osint-all-sources-arent-created-equal.html; Charlemagne, “Analyst Beware! The Perils of OSINT,” IMSL blog, December 18, 2012, http://intelmsl.com/insights/in-the-news/analyst-beware-the-perils-of-osint/.

  29.Alice Speri, “Now Even ISIS Has Its Very Own Whistleblower,” Vice News, June 19, 2014, https://news.vice.com/article/now-even-isis-has-its-very-own-whistleblower; Jacob Siegel, “Someone Is Spilling ISIS’s Secrets on Twitter,” Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/18/someone-is-spilling-isis-s-secrets-on-twitter.html.

  30.For instance, Teresa Salvadoretti, “The Role of Social Media in the Syrian Crisis,” Asfar, 2014, http://www.asfar.org.uk/the-role-of-the-social-media-in-the-syrian-crisis.html, and Laure Nouraout, “Gaza, Syria, Ukraine: Hot to Debunk Fake Images,” GEN: Global Editors Network, August 27, 2014, http://www.globaleditorsnetwork.org/news/2014/08/gaza,-syria,-ukraine-how-to-debunk-fake-images/.

  31.Data collected on @e3tasimo in December 2013.

  32.Jawa Report blog, February 28, 2014, http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/217785.php; J. M. Berger, Twitter post, February 28, 2014, https://twitter.com/intelwire/status/439495997706993664; data collected on @reyadiraq’s followers on February 21, 2013.

  33.Data on @dawlh_i_sh was last collected on August 26, 2014. The suspension happened soon after.

  34.J. M. Berger, Twitter post, January 10, 2014, https://twitter.com/intelwire/status/421707838021316608.

  35.Data collected in February and March 2014.

  36.Data collected via Topsy.com for thirty days following February 20, 2014.

  37.Charles Arthur, “What Is the 1% Rule?” The Guardian, July 19, 2006, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2006/jul/20/guardianweeklytechnologysection2; J. M. Berger and Bill Strathearn, “Who Matters Online: Measuring influence, evaluating content and countering violent extremism in online social networks,” International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, March 2013, http://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ICSR_Berger-and-Strathearn.pdf.

  38.Data collected by and analyzed J. M. Berger in March and April 2014 using a methodology derived from “Who Matters Online,” ibid.

  39.ISIS Twitter strategy document, September 12, 2014; Shayba al-Hamdi; http://justpaste.it/h26t.

  40.Ibid.

  41.Based on analysis of data collected from February 2014 to November 2014.

  42.Active Hashtags, Twitter account: https://twitter.com/activehashtags.

  43.Based on data collected in March and April 2014.

  44.Ibid.

  45.Data collected by J. M. Berger in June 2014; see also Berger, “How ISIS Games Twitter.”

  46.J. M. Berger, Twitter post, August 8, 2014, https://twitter.com/intelwire/status/497954495109009409.

  47.Sophie Evans, “The Dutch Jihadi Fighter (and artist) Training British Teenagers How to Kill in Syria (and when he’s not doing that he’s taking pictures of cats),” Daily Mail Online, July 9, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2685648/Syria-fighter.html; “ISIS Goes Nuts for Nutella: Brutal Jihadists Reveal
Bizarre Soft Spot for the Chocolate Hazelnut Spread,” Daily Mail Online, August 14, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2724889/ISIS-goes-nuts-Nutella-Brutal-Jihadists-reveal-bizarre-soft-spot-chocolate-hazelnut-spread.html; Jon Stone, “Islamist Fighters in Iraq and Syria Keep Tweeting Pictures of Cats,” BuzzFeed, June 16, 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/jonstone/foreign-jihadi-fighters-in-iraq-and-syria-keep-tweeting-pict; “Chilling New ISIS Threat Against Americans on Twitter,” AOL, August 21, 2014, http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/21/chilling-new-isis-threat-against-americans-on-twitter-group-beheaded-journalist-james-foley/20950677/; Meg Wagner, “ ‘We Are in Your Cities’: Alleged ISIS Terrorists Threaten U.S. Via Twitter,” New York Daily News, August 23, 2014, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/alleged-isis-terrorists-threaten-u-s-twitter-article-1.1914363; Taylor Wofford, “ISIS Paranoia Reaches America,” Newsweek, September 24, 2014, http://www.newsweek.com/where-isis-isnt-273030; Jennifer Smith, “Islamic State has a ‘dirty bomb’ says British jihadi, amid claims 40kg of URANIUM was taken from Iraqi university,” Daily Mail, November 30, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2854729/Islamic-State-dirty-bomb-says-British-jihadi-amid-claims-40kg-uranium-taken-Iraqi-university.html; Sarah Kaufman, “Boneheaded ISIS Threat: We Will Infect U.S. With Ebola,” Vocativ, September 16, 2014, http://www.vocativ.com/world/isis-2/isis-ebola-threat/.

  48.Google Trends, accessed October 31, 2014.

  49.Data on financier networks on Twitter was analyzed over several months in 2014 with assistance from Aaron Zelin, the Richard Borow Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Rena and Sami David Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence.

  50.For detailed descriptions of how these networks worked, see Aukai Collins, My Jihad: The True Story of an American Mujahid’s Amazing Journey from Usama Bin Laden’s Training Camps to Counterterrorism with the FBI and CIA (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2002); John Miller, Michael Stone, and Chris Mitchell, The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It (New York: Hyperion, 2002); and J. M. Berger, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2011).

  51.Shaarik Zafar, “Western Foreign Fighters in Syria: Implications for the U.S. CVE Efforts,” Washington Institute, March 14, 2014, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/western-foreign-fighters-in-syria-implications-for-u.s.-cve-efforts.

  52.Ibid.

  53.Vicky Collins, “Denver Teens Chatted Online with ISIS Recruiter, Report Says,” NBC News, October 30, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/denver-teens-chatted-online-isis-recruiter-report-says-n237666.

  54.Oren Dorell, “FBI Probes Islamic State Recruiting in Minneapolis,” USA Today, August 29, 2014, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/29/islamic-state-minneapolis-recruiting/14794307/; Jamie Yuccas, “Minneapolis Has Become Recruiting Ground for Islamic Extremists,” CBS News, August 27, 2014, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/minneapolis-has-become-recruiting-ground-for-islamic-extremists/; Philip Ross, “ISIS Recruiters in US: Jihadists Target Minneapolis Youth for ‘Indoctrination,’” International Business Times, October 2, 2014, http://www.ibtimes.com/isis-recruiters-us-jihadists-target-minneapolis-youth-indoctrination-1698359.

  55.Analysis of Twitter networks by J. M. Berger.

  56.Dr. Jon Cole et al., “Guidance For Identifying People Vulnerable to Recruitment Into Violent Extremism,” Counterrorism.org, 2012, https://www.counterextremism.org/resources/details/id/224/guidance-for-identifying-people-vulnerable-to-recruitment-into-violent-extremism.

  57.Adam Serwer, “Accused Student Terrorist Was a Social Media Oversharer,” MSNBC, March 25, 2014, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/instagram-social-media-terrorism-teausant; “Wake Terrorism Investigation Built Over Weeks,” WRAL, March 20, 2014, http://www.wral.com/wake-terrorism-investigation-built-over-weeks/13496093/; United States of America v. Avin Marsalis Brown (aka Musa Brown), 5:14-MJ-1181-WW, March 20, 2014, http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/2331.pdf; “Nicolas Teausant Charged with Attempting to Aid Al Qaeda Fighters from California,” Associated Press, March 27, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/nicholas-teausant-student-al-qaeda_n_5041718.html; analysis of Facebook networks by J. M. Berger.

  58.Jeff Weyers, “The Newest Advertising and Recruiting Mogul: ISIS,” IBRABO, last updated June 26, 2014, http://ibrabo.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/the-newest-advertising-and-recruiting-mogul-isis/; interview with Jeff Weyers, 2014.

  59.Facebook data collected by Jeff Weyers; additional Facebook data collected by J. M. Berger in 2013 and 2014; Jeff Weyers, “While the Ceasefire Holds on the Ground the Battle to Win Hearts and Minds on Social Media Heats Up for al Qassam,” IBRABO, last updated September 9, 2014, http://ibrabo.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/while-the-ceasefire-holds-on-the-ground-the-battle-to-win-hearts-and-minds-on-social-media-heats-up-for-al-qassam/.

  60.“Reporting Abusive Behavior,” Twitter Help Center blog, accessed October 31, 2014.

  61.“Blocking Users On Twitter,” Twitter Help Center blog, accessed October 31, 2014.

  62.Peter Bergen, “Are Mass Murders Using Twitter as a Tool?” CNN Opinion, September 27, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/opinion/bergen-twitter-terrorism/.

  63.Data collected by J. M. Berger, September 2013 to present.

  64.Ibid.

  65.Jeremy Kessel, “Fighting for More #transparency,” Twitter blog, February 6, 2014, https://blog.twitter.com/2014/fighting-for-more-transparency; Jeremy Kessel, “Continuing Our Fight for More #Transparency,” Twitter blog, July 31, 2014, https://blog.twitter.com/2014/continuing-our-fight-for-more-transparency; “Removal Requests,” Twitter Transparency, https://transparency.twitter.com/removal-requests/2014/jan-jun.

  66.Caleb Garling, “Twitter C.E.O. Dick Costolo on Receiving Death Threats from ISIS,” Vanity Fair, October 9, 2014, http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/10/twitter-ceo-death-threats-isis.

  67.Entities with legal jurisdiction, a category not clearly defined by Twitter, but likely related to copyright and intellectual property violations, as well as security issues such as phishing and malware.

  68.“Removal Requests,” Twitter Transparency, https://transparency.twitter.com/removal-requests/2014/jan-jun.

  69.Dawn app tweets promoting the video, collected by J. M. Berger in May, June, and October 2014.

  70.A note from J. M. Berger: There are established methods for inflating YouTube view counts (see http://youtubecreator.blogspot.com/2014/02/keeping-youtube-views-authentic.html), including commercial spam services of a type known to be employed by ISIS, but not yet observed in the wild. In addition, users can simply view the video over and over again, in part or in whole. The video was rapidly suspended as it was posted, limiting historical access to statistics, but in light of ISIS’s known tactics, I believe it’s extremely likely that the views for most ISIS video releases are similarly inflated.

  71.Nico Prucha, “Is this the most successful release of a jihadist video ever?,” Jihadica blog, May 19, 2014, http://www.jihadica.com/is-this-the-most-successful-release-of-a-jihadist-video-ever/.

  72.“India Arrests Man Behind Pro-ISIS Twitter Account @shamiwitness,” NBC News, December 13, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/india-arrests-man-behind-pro-isis-twitter-account-shamiwitness-n267701.

  73.“ISIS Jihadists Put Out Hollywood-Style Propaganda Film,” France 24, June 13, 2014, http://observers.france24.com/content/20140613-hollywood-fim-jihadist-propaganda-isis; Brown Moses, Twitter post, June 11, 2014, https://twitter.com/Brown_Moses/status/476728953856884738; Paul Szoldra, “Militants in Iraq Are Surprisingly Brilliant on Social Media,” Business Insider, June 25, 2014, www.businessinsider.com/isis-propaganda-2014-6.

  74.Miriam Berger, “Twitter Has Suspended an ISIS Account That Live-Tweeted Its Advance in Iraq,” Buzzfeed, June 14, 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/miriamberger/twitter-has-suspended-an-isis-account-that-live-tweeted-its; data collected from Twitter in June
2014.

  75.Data collected June 2014.

  76.J. M. Berger, “The State of the ‘Caliphate’ is . . . Meh,” IntelWire, July 2, 2014, http://news.intelwire.com/2014/07/the-caliphate-so-far-flatlining.html.

  77.Data collected from Twitter in August 2014 and thereafter.

  78.Miriam Berger, “Where Is ISIS Moving to Online as Twitter Clamps Down?” BuzzFeed, August 20, 2014, http://www.buzzfeed.com/miriamberger/where-is-isis-moving-to-online-as-twitter-clamps-down.

  79.Amar Toor, “How Putin’s Cronies Seized Control of Russia’s Facebook,” Verge, January 31, 2014, http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/31/5363990/how-putins-cronies-seized-control-over-russias-facebook-pavel-durov-vk.

  80.Rukmini Callimachi, “Militant Group Says It Killed American Journalist in Syria,” New York Times, August 19, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/world/middleeast/isis-james-foley-syria-execution.html.

  81.Nancy Scola, “Foley Video, Photos Being Scrubbed from Twitter,” Washington Post, August 19, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/19/foley-video-photos-being-scrubbed-from-twitter/.

  82.“Social Media Pushes Back at Miliant Propaganda,” Asharq Al-Awsat, August 21, 2014, http://www.aawsat.net/2014/08/article55335722.

  83.Shirley Li, “Twitter Will Crack Down on Trolls After Robin William’ Daughter Was Bullied off Network,” Wire, August 14, 2014, http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/08/twitter-to-crack-down-on-trolls-after-robin-williams-daughter-bullied-off-network/376059/.

  84.Alex Ben Block, “Robin Williams’ Death Spurs New Twitter Policy, Magazine Sales Spikes,” Hollywood Reporter, August 28, 2014, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-death-spurs-new-728722.

  85.“Contacting Twitter About a Deceased User or Media Concerning a Deceased Family Member,” Twitter Help Center, https://support.twitter.com/articles/87894-contacting-twitter-about-a-deceased-user-or-media-concerning-a-deceased-family-member.