The Rise of Jihadist Propaganda on Social Networks

TL;DR

This study analyzes how ISIS uses social media, especially Arabic content, to spread propaganda and recruit militants, revealing patterns and connections between online rhetoric and real-world events.

Contribution

It provides one of the first analyses of Arabic ISIS propaganda on social media, highlighting targeted strategies and content types used for recruitment and influence.

Findings

ISIS employs violence-driven, theological, and sectarian content to influence audiences.

Social media propaganda correlates with key ground events, indicating strategic timing.

Arabic content is central to ISIS's online recruitment and influence efforts.

Abstract

Using a dataset of over 1.9 million messages posted on Twitter by about 25,000 ISIS members, we explore how ISIS makes use of social media to spread its propaganda and to recruit militants from the Arab world and across the globe. By distinguishing between violence-driven, theological, and sectarian content, we trace the connection between online rhetoric and key events on the ground. To the best of our knowledge, ours is one of the first studies to focus on Arabic content, while most literature focuses on English content. Our findings yield new important insights about how social media is used by radical militant groups to target the Arab-speaking world, and reveal important patterns in their propaganda efforts.