ISIS
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Telecoms giant Ericsson may have paid ISIS for access to Iraq
The company admits finding purchases for transport routes in Iraq controlled by the terrorist group.
Amazon disables ISIS propaganda website using AWS to host content (updated)
The Islamic State's propaganda arm used Amazon Web Services to host content promoting extremism, according to The Washington Post.
US officials seize cryptocurrency accounts tied to al-Qaeda and ISIS
Agents recouped about $2 million worth of virtual currency in total.
TikTok is the latest platform to pull ISIS propaganda videos
TikTok may have a terrorism problem. According to The Wall Street Journal, Islamic State militants have been posting short propaganda videos to the platform. That's especially concerning because TikTok is so popular with impressionable teenagers.
Burned alive for using a smartphone
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. Mosul, Iraq -- Before the camera rolls, 34-year-old Fatima pulls her head scarf over her face and ushers her young daughter out of frame. It can be hard to get people on camera in this city. They're happy to talk off the record, but as soon as a recorder comes out, they become skittish -- and with good reason. They're terrified that ISIS will eventually return and that they'll be first on the chopping block for talking to journalists about the brutality of the occupation.
Hackers seize dormant Twitter accounts to push terrorist propaganda
As much progress as Twitter has made kicking terrorists off its platform, it still has a long way to go. TechCrunch has learned that ISIS supporters are hijacking long-dormant Twitter accounts to promote their ideology. Security researcher WauchulaGhost found that the extremists were using a years-old trick to get in. Many of these idle accounts used email addresses that either expired or never existed, often with names identical to their Twitter handles -- the social site didn't confirm email addresses for roughly a decade, making it possible to use the service without a valid inbox. As Twitter only partly masks those addresses, it's easy to create those missing addresses and reset those passwords.
Facebook's friend suggestions helped connect extremists
When you think of internet giants fighting terrorism online, there's a good chance you think of them banning accounts and deleting posts. However, their friend suggestions may prove to be just as problematic. Researchers have shared a report to the Telegraph revealing that Facebook's "suggested friends" feature has been connecting Islamic extremists on a routine basis. While some instances are almost expected (contacting one extremist brings up connections to others), some of the suggestions surface purely by accident: reading an article about an extremist uprising in the Philippines led to recommendations for "dozens" of local extremists.
Facebook details its fight to stop terrorist content
Last June, Facebook described how it uses AI to help find and take down terrorist content on its platform and in November, the company said that its AI tools had allowed it to remove nearly all ISIS- and Al Qaeda-related content before it was flagged by a user. Its efforts to remove terrorist content with artificial intelligence came up frequently during Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional hearings earlier this month and the company's lead policy manager of counterterrorism spoke about the work during SXSW in March. Today, Facebook gave an update of that work in an installment of its Hard Questions series.
Appeals court throws out case blaming Twitter for ISIS attacks
A woman suing Twitter for allowing ISIS activity on its website has had her case thrown out by a federal appeals court in San Francisco. The court ruled that Twitter Inc is not liable to families of two US government contractors killed in an Islamic State attack in Jordan for its failure to block ISIS from using its messaging services.
Twitter can’t separate verification from validation
2016 was a dumpster fire of a year for Twitter. Abusive language and toxic interaction became the norm across the microblogging site as it saw a dramatic rise in activity from users on the far right and their crystallization into the alt-right movement. But for as painful as last year was for the company, 2017 has seen it steadfastly refuse to do little else but pour more gasoline on the flames.
Twitter suspended over 935,000 terror-related accounts since 2015
In a blog post today about its twice yearly Transparency Report, Twitter outlined some numbers regarding its actions against accounts linked to terrorism. Those include accounts that "actively incite or promote violence associated with internationally recognized terrorist organizations, promote internationally recognized terrorist organizations, and accounts attempting to evade prior enforcement."
US citizen allegedly used fake eBay sales to hide ISIS funding
According to FBI records, US citizen Mohamed Elshinawy used fake eBay sales to bring in ISIS funding for terror attacks, reports the Wall Street Journal. As part of a financial network with operatives in Britain and Bangladesh, Elshinawy pretended to sell printers on the site in order to get PayPal payments from Islamic State groups abroad.
Afghanistan’s all-girl teen robotics team denied entry to US
Next month, the inaugural FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition will bring together high school teams from around the world. Taking place in Washington, DC, over 150 teams are set to participate. However, while the team from Afghanistan's robot will be there, the team itself won't because the US has denied their visa applications.
Google bets AI and human oversight will curb online extremism
Google is under a lot of pressure to stamp out extremists' online presences, and it's responding to that heat today. The internet giant has outlined four steps it's taking to flag and remove pro-terrorism content on its pages, particularly on YouTube. Technological improvements play a role, of course, but the company is also counting on a human element that will catch what its automated filters can't.
Terror attack victims claim social media enables extremism
Social media has allowed violent extremism to flourish, and the companies involved have done nothing to prevent it. That's the claim being made by relatives of those murdered in the San Bernardino terrorist attack in a Los Angeles court. Reuters is reporting that families of some of the victims have launched a lawsuit against Facebook, Google and Twitter. The trio stand accused of providing "material support" to terror groups through omission, refusing to properly tackle the issue and shut down such online activity.
ISIS created its own social network to spread propaganda
Social media has been a main tool for Islamic State militants to spread propaganda and recruit members for years now. But as companies like Twitter and Telegram continue to crack down on ISIS accounts, militants appear to be building their own private social networks to further their communications efforts. European Police Office (Europol) director Rob Wainwright said at a security conference in London that a new network was discovered during a two-day operation against Islamic extremism. According to Reuters, Europol conducted the operation along with the United States, Belgium, Greece, Poland and Portugal; it uncovered more than 2,000 extremist "items" across a total of 52 online networks.
US Air Force buys counter-drone tech to battle ISIS
The Pentagon is purchasing tech from Israeli defense firm that could jam or take down weaponized drones used by ISIS, according to Defense One. The $15.6 million contract was awarded for "man-portable aerial defense systems kits," something that usually refers to shoulder-fired missiles. However, the USAF department that purchased it is in charge of communications and electronics devices, and the seller, Israeli Aeronautics Industries (IAI), just happens to manufacture a jamming device called "Drone Guard."
ISIS has converted commercial drones into bombers
As Iraqi Security Forces attempt to drive ISIS out of Mosul, a large city in Northern Iraq that the terrorist organization has occupied since 2014, it's facing an arsenal of improvised, experimental weapons. One of ISIS' newest hand-made weapons is the armed drone: a commercial quadcopter equipped with the ability to drop grenade-size explosives.
France jailed a man for visiting pro-ISIS websites
France's mercurial relationship with technology and the internet is in the news once again. This time it's because a man was going to pro-ISIS websites with regularity. Facing a two year sentence, the suspect said that he was simply curious and wanted to "tell the difference between real Islam and the false Islam," France Bleu reports.
Hacker faces 20 years in prison for helping ISIS
The US just broke new ground in its bid to fight pro-terrorist hackers. A judge has sentenced Kosovo citizen Ardit Ferizi to 20 years in prison for hacking a US company in order to collect information about 1,300 government and military personnel and help ISIS create a hit list. It's the country's first conviction for terrorism-related hacking, according to Assistant Attorney General John Carlin. Ferizi pleaded guilty on June 15th, roughly 8 months after Malaysian police arrested him on the US' behalf.
