News and Media

Copies of Audiobook uploads of the neo-Nazi manifesto Siege and The Turner Diaries , a so-called “ Handbook for White Victory ” for white nationalists, seem to have been taken down by YouTube. The apparent removal of these videos represents a policy reversal for YouTube, which in February stated Siege videos did not violate its Terms of Service.

CEP today released new reports on the Muslim Brotherhood in 12 countries. The new reports detail the Sunni Islamist movement’s origins, history, violent activities, and government designations in: Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemem. In April, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was considering declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its encouragement and support of violence throughout the Middle East.

James Mason’s neo-Nazi manifesto, Siege , has since inspired a generation of neo-Nazis since it was first published as a single volume in 1992. The book sparked a violent online subculture called Siege Culture, devoted to Mason’s calls for independent terror cells to carry out a race war. Siege Culture is found across social media, podcasts, and chatrooms dedicated to Mason’s book. One group inspired by Siege , the U.S.-based Atomwaffen Division ( AWD ), has been linked to at least five murders and has branches in Canada and Europe. In 2015, AWD members republished Siege and began to popularize it online through Siege Culture, which has manifested itself through various social media and online forums.

CEP commended the House Committee on Homeland Security for holding a hearing on social media companies' efforts to counter online terror content and misinformation. The hearing was called in the wake of March’s New Zealand mosque shootings—in which a terrorist killed 51 people and livestreamed it all on Facebook. A full 24 hours after the livestream, Facebook failed to remove 300,000 reuploads of the attack video. Tech’s failure to prevent reuploads of known terrorist content sheds light on the failings and ineffectiveness of the industry-led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

Abdullah al-Faisal is a U.S.-designated Islamist propagandist who has recruited for ISIS and facilitated travel to ISIS-held territory. In announcing his indictment, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Faisal’s lectures, websites, and videos have incited “untold numbers of people around the world to take up the cause of jihad.” New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said Faisal “has used his influence and direction to groom and inspire terrorists who have bombed trains, attempted to blow up airliners and attack Americans here and abroad.”

CEP today released the finale of a nine-part video series featuring CEP Senior Adviser Dr. Hany Farid , a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the video, titled “ Responsibility ,” Dr. Farid calls on tech companies to take more responsibility for what happens on their platforms — both the good and the bad.

Ahmad Musa Jibril is an Islamist preacher well-known for being an influential jihadist voice in Syria and for having radicalized Khuram Shazad Butt, one of three London Bridge attackers who killed eight people and wounded almost 50 others on June 3, 2017. Despite Jibril’s role in inciting horrific violence, Google-owned YouTube shockingly declared two years ago that Jibril’s videos did not violate the company’s Terms of Service. Today, Jibril’s lectures remain freely available on Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms and his messages continue to resonate with extremists and jihadists.