News and Media

In recent days, Facebook has trumpeted its efforts and success in disrupting influence campaigns undertaken by foreign actors. For some , this represents a change in public relations tactics from the company’s “defensive” nature. And while the company should be commended for taking proactive steps, it is once again not enough. When organizations like CEP can readily identify instances of how ISIS continues to exploit Facebook to host meetings, link to terrorist propaganda and organize on the popular social media platform, it is clear that the company still has its work cut out for them.

On August 22, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released a new audio message titled “Give Glad Tidings To The Patient” – a reference to Quran 2:155 referring to the testing of the faithful. The recording was released via ISIS’s most authoritative media arm, Al-Furqan Foundation. In his speech, Baghdadi states that ISIS, unlike other Sunni groups in Syria, never surrenders and urges members of the opposition to join them. He also called for the overthrow of the Saudi government and specifically called for attacks in the west, especially with vehicular attacks on crowds. Video versions of the speech were uploaded to at least 21 websites.

European Union officials formally announced a crackdown on tech companies this week deciding to abandon its voluntary policies in favor of stronger regulation. Speaking to the Financial Times regarding the removal of extremist content online, Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King stated that not enough progress had been made by the likes of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and that further action would be taken “in order to better protect our citizens.” The new rules are expected to reflect previous proposals that required platforms to remove extremist content within an hour of its upload and will be applied to all companies, regardless of size.

The nature of extremists’ ongoing misuse of the Internet continues to evolve. From social media platforms to encrypted messaging channels to dedicated websites, extremists—in particular ISIS—have adapted all types of sites and online services to promote their hateful, violent ideologies. Interestingly, the website PasteThis.At, a text-based bulletin board, has recently become an online haven for ISIS propaganda. The site is similar in layout and functionality to other sites like JustPaste.It, a well-known text and image sharing site commonly used to share computer code and a wide variety of information, which has become an important conduit for spreading ISIS content.

CEP's study on YouTube's failure to remove extremist content was featured in a Washington Post story on August 19. "A study released last month by the Counter Extremism Project, a New York-based nonprofit, found that a quarter of Islamic State videos uploaded onto YouTube remained accessible for at least two hours before being discovered and taken down, according to the study, which analyzed content over three months last spring. On other platforms, the links remained active for days or even weeks, potentially allowing new videos to be downloaded and shared thousands of times."

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Barcelona terror attack, which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100 others. A day before the vehicle attack in Barcelona, a house used to make TATP bombs in Alacanar exploded. The attack was claimed by ISIS and the group released a video praising the perpetrators later in August 2017. According to the BBC, French investigators are still looking for links between the Barcelona attackers and a suspected French terror cell. ISIS supporters on Telegram have marked the anniversary by recently sharing news stories from major Western publications related to the Barcelona attacks and Spain, as well as old content and ISIS news in Spanish.

Since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in April to Congress, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) has repeatedly called out the company for its overly optimistic and misleading claim that 99 percent of ISIS and Al Qaeda content is removed from the platform. And now, other voices have also followed suit. Speaking to The Washington Times, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Julian Sanchez stated that it should be questioned “how meaningful the figure is.” Brennan Center for Justice’s Faiza Patel echoed those sentiments, saying “given the universe of content, and what we don’t know about it, that doesn’t tell you much.”

On and off the battlefield, ISIS has proven itself to be especially resilient and adaptable. With the terror group having lost large swathes of its territory, especially in Mosul and Raqqa, they have shifted to tactics both old and new. They have resorted to terrorizing communities with “swift hit-and-runs to kidnap people” for the purpose of exchanging them for captured terrorists. ISIS also specifically targets minorities, such as Assyrian Christians, those that follow the Druze faith and Iraq’s Yazidis, in order “to create anarchy, unrest, and ultimately take control over the chaos.”

Sunday, August 12 marks the scheduled return of Unite The Right 2, a sequel to last year’s rally, where a vehicle attack carried out by a white supremacist killed one woman and injured at least 30 others. Previously, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) criticized Facebook for allowing hate groups to utilize the platform to organize the rally despite the company’s previous promises to do more. And now, in a recently released intelligence note by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP), the agency echoed that sentiment stating, “White supremacist extremists continue to leverage social media to communicate, organize, and spread propaganda, despite the efforts of mainstream social media companies to remove extremist content from their online platforms.”