US launches online campaign against ISIS

[Jefferson23]

2. Attempts to silence ISIS online could backfire.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a Sunni militant group, now holds territory in Syria and Iraq that is roughly the size of Belgium. But it’s also gaining ground on the Internet.

ISIS’s presence on social media is quite sophisticated and relies on strategies that “inflate and control its message,” wrote J.M. Berger in the Atlantic. In addition to maintaining accounts on popular social media sites, ISIS launched its own app in the Google Play store (now removed) and has utilized hashtags on Twitter to “focus-group messaging and branding concepts, much like a Western corporation might.”

The story of how the Iraqi government is dealing with ISIS’s online presence has taken a backseat to the debate in U.S. media around military action. But it can easily be summed up in two words: not well.

Only about 7.1 percent of Iraq’s population of 32.5 million people use the Internet. Add to that the U.S. occupation and ensuing conflict that has beleaguered the country, and it makes sense that Internet regulation has been a low priority for Iraq’s leaders. Historically, the Internet in the country has remained mostly free from restrictions, and a 2012 attempt to institute a “cybercrime” law failed. Despite slow speeds, Iraq has managed to remain an open Internet zone.

In shuttering social media, Iraq’s leadership isn’t just silencing ISIS.

But no longer: In the wake of ISIS’s online onslaught, the embattled Iraqi leadership has scrambled to curb its influence. First, the Ministry of Communications ordered Internet service providers to block Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Just a few days after the sites were blocked, however, the ban was reversed. Then, a ministry directive to ISPs to shut down the Internet in five provinces and limit the use of virtual private networks and other sites was leaked, prompting outrage from Iraqi activists. It has also been reported that the Iraqi government used the opportunity to block pornography.

The Iraqi government isn’t the only entity fighting ISIS online. On June 13, Twitter began suspending accounts belonging to the group. The removal of one account, @Nnewsi, drew particular ire from WikiLeaks, which tweeted its condemnation of the move. The account had been tweeting news of ISIS’s maneuvers, providing journalists and others with a direct account of the group’s actions.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/06/isis_twitter_suspended_how_attempts_to_silence_terrorists_online_could_backfire.html