Join ISIS they said, It’l be fun they said.

Isis, the extremist jihadist group that has led the insurgency against the authoritarian Iraqi government in recent weeks, and which runs parts of northern Syria… has stepped UP its propaganda game.

Just like that fun club in Highschool that every body wanted to join because of the free cupcakes and pizza thursdays comes ISIS, the newest “club” that uses Nutella and food themed mobile uploads as a trap.

The islamic state has been very clever in the way in which it portrays itself. Long gone are the days of blury videos of Osama bin-laden hidden in a bunker, filmed through low quality cameras.

With the use of social media, ISIS is thriving by getting viewers to see that they also are on the same level as western advertisement and that they aren’t just some third world group somewhere in the desert.

Although ISIS hates western culture, they use western media such as Twitter and Facebook to build their brand, spread terror and most importantly… recruit.

Savvy use of hashtags and clever – if warped – videos makes Twitter the perfect tool for the ISIS product,

The article, ” Isis has built a global brand using Nutella,Celebrity and Social media” shows us the way in which ISIS raises its public image to recruit as well as maintain its underground status.

ISIS’ use of JIhadi John creates a celebrity out of him, something that people want to be and are drawn to… especially those who receive little to no recognition for practicing islam in the western world

And although they say that girls love nutella while on their period, Isis uses this chocolate-hazelunt goodness to lure members in…everyday of the month. Perfect product placement, showing that they also have access to luxuries.
High quality media is no foreighn term for ISIS.
The terror group built its own high tech media centre, Al-Hayat which is known for producing torture videos. With their glossy magazine, the fourth issue of Dabiq, ISIS media is being spread faster then ever.

The Dabiq justifies the many things ISIS and its fighters may do in the name of Allah.

“You will pay the price when your sons are sent to wage war against us, and they return to you as disabled amputees, or inside coffins, or mentally ill”

– Quote from Dabiq magazine

.

“They use flattery,” says Sheffield of The Independent. In order to reccruit women as well, ISIS promises women a future with plenty of men who share a common religion and love for allah. Nutella, kittens, and a Jihadi in your bed.

What more could you want?

The extremist group is putting a particular focus on girls, analysts say.

Earlier this year, three brittish girls left their families and friends to join ISIS.

But what exactly is the young person’s appeal to join this radical group?

ISIS and other extremist groups use platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to reach their target audience with:

a language it understands

ISIS fighters are potrayed as rockstars and after all, who doesnt want their name in the hall of fame.
“ISIS provides these deluded young men and women with an adventurous trip,” says Jethro Mullen of CNN’s article of ” What is ISIS’ appeal for Young People”.

With over 900, 000 ISIS related sent tweets, this terror group knows how to use social media to reach the young..and impressionable.

“We are way behind. They are far superior and advanced than we are when it comes to new media technologies,” Maajid Nawaz, a former jihadi and author of “Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism

According to the CNN article, Thousands of their Twitter followers have also installed the app, “the Dawn of Glad Tidings” which feeds users with updates on ISIS’ doings and killings. A constant news feed that shoots propaganda into the minds of young ones making that decision to join ISIS or stay at home.

Instagram, a social media platform used to upload images and use nice filters is now being adopted by none other then ISIS. Users use pro-jihad slogans that are aimed a western viewership. “You only die once,” reads one image that attracted 72 likes on Instagram.

“Why not make it martyrdom?”

-Instagram caption

ISIS uploads photos of their members carrying killing machines while munching on a snickers bar or biting into a hamburger to show that they too have a “fun” day to day. ISIS promises a better life as well as a group to fit in.

“Sounds great, right?”

says Mahmood, just one of the many bloggers that reports on life within ISIS.

But who exactly is behind all of this terrifying propaganda?

Like a scene out of a “call of duty” video game, come videos used to inflict terror into people watching and promote this violent group. These videos created are supposed to show that ISIS is a powerful and strong group that will stop at nothing to get what they want.

The video created by Isis’s tech gurus “Is Isis saying to them: look what will happen to you if you cross our path. And it actually worked… a lot of soldiers deserted once they saw the black banners of Isis,” says Abu Bakr al-Janabi, an Iraqi Isis supporter.

The image that ISIS portrays through social media is one that will have you packing up your teddy bear and picnic basket at the call of “ISIS is around the corner”

“Baghdad, we are coming.”

-ISIS tweet

ISIS portrays a very violent image. More powerful and violent then U.S soldiers is what they want their people to believe.

The Guardian article, “Who is behind Isis’s terrifying online propaganda tells us that “The fear about ISIS storming the capital is borne out of their social media campaign, not reality,” says the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Martin Chulov.

One of the main reasons for ISIS propaganda is: “definitely to scare people,” says Aymenn Al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

According to the “fear” part of chomsky’s propaganda model : “if people are frightened, they will accept authority”.. ISIS authority, that is.

In order to create these terror instilling videos, they have to be well made.

“It’s high-quality equipment that they’re actually very technically skilled at using….. They’re also really good at Photoshop.”

if we want to stop ISIS propaganda .. we must start now.

“If we want to really solve the problem and maybe even regain some credibility, we need leaders who are willing to put forth the idea that we have to change the way we regard the Quran”,says Fathima Nazeer of the Huffington Post.

Treating the Quran as God’s perfect and literal word to man is creating too many problems.

only when a critical mass of Muslims propagate the idea that the Quran may not be God’s literal and perfect word to man and denounce the violent and hateful verses in the Quran that support ISIS’s ideology, we will successfully counter ISIS’s propaganda and stop the flow of wannabe jihadis crossing that Turkish border.

Bestselling author and Harvard professor, Ayaan hirsi ali, recently published a book on Islam and why it needs a reformation.

Another way to be effective against ISIS propaganda is to create a counter movement of anti-ISIS propaganda.

No amount of deleting twitter accounts or face books will stop this virtual war. A war that uses the click of a mouse is one that expands to rapidly to be stopped in that way.

“We’re getting beaten on volume, so the only way to compete is by aggregating, curating and amplifying existing content,” Richard A. Stengel, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. One must come with a social media counter attack to show people thinking about joining ISIS that what they see is not actually what they will get.

Messages include : “They came for jihad but were murdered by Al Shabab.”

We also need to educate the general population with classes where the students can learn what is actually happenening in these terror groups.

According to the CNN article, “What is ISIS’ appeal for young people,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said “It needs every school, every university, every college, every community to recognize they have a role to play, we all have a role to play in stopping people from having their minds poisoned by this appalling death cult,”

An article in the New York Times, “US intensifies effort to blunt ISIS message, states that the center for strategic counterterrorism communications is at the heart of a plan to harness counter social media attacks on propaganda for terrorist groups.

But using the american government to say something against ISIS will not be a highly credible source for the target audience. Part of the plan stated in the New York Times article is to use muslim sources who have a larger and more direct impact for the muslim communities.

We need to show that what ISIS is “selling” is nothing but lies, deceit, torture and an empty jar of Nutella.

France has created propaganda such as this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpE15jKhyMA.

More of these types of images must be spread. ISIS shouldn’t be able to lure anyone in with candy. The public needs to be informed through education, images, and videos on what is Truly going on.

The online messages need to create a competing narrative that strikes an emotional chord with potential militants weighing whether to join a violent extremist group.

“These guys aren’t BuzzFeed; they’re not invincible in social media,”says Stengel of the Washington Post