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Google aims its terrorist-dissuading ads at North America
As radical terrorists ramp up their online recruitment, social media services like Twitter often bear the brunt of criticism for failing to curb their outreach. But sometimes Google gets an earful too, leading them to research how to counter to the narrative ISIS spreads online. To that end, the search giant's subsidiary incubator Jigsaw has spent the last year building a program that uses its own advertising tech to persuade potential recruits not to join the extremist organization. Their next phase, beginning this month, will deploy it in North America to target both possible terrorist sympathizers and white supremacists.
PewDiePie's Twitter temporarily suspended after ISIS joke
Yesterday, popular YouTube personality PewDiePie made minor headlines for losing his Twitter verification checkmark. Today, he was briefly suspended for the service. "I did this yesterday as a joke," he explained on Youtube, teasing users who view Twitter verification as a status symbol. "But then America woke up and that's when shit got stupid." Overnight, Kjellberg says an account parodying Sky News posted a fake news story claiming he lost his verification status for having "suspected relations with ISIS." Later, the YouTuber referenced the article on Twitter, joking that both he and JackSepticEye had joined the terrorist organization. Later, his account Twitter account was suspended.
UK: Facebook, Google, Twitter 'consciously failing' on terrorism
The UK parliament has slammed Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for "consciously failing" to remove terrorism recruitment content. According to a report from the Home Affairs Committee, the social networks are "the vehicle of choice in spreading propaganda and the recruiting platforms for terrorism." In statements to the WSJ, the companies denied that they are lax with extremist postings. "We deal swiftly and robustly with reports of terrorism-related content," a Facebook spokesperson said.
Iraq built a gun-wielding robotic vehicle to take on ISIS
Iraq built an armed robotic vehicle, according to Baghdad Post, and it could be used to take back a town occupied by ISIS. Based on Defense One's translation of the story, the robot is car-sized and tank-like, equipped with an automatic machine gun and a rocket launcher. It also has four cameras to be able to show operators its field of view, since it's controlled using a laptop from a kilometer away. That distance means its operators still have to be on the battlefield, but at least they can stay hidden and safe while the machine does its job.
Twitter and YouTube wouldn't delete an extremist cleric's posts (update: gone)
Internet giants have been increasingly willing to take down extremist content, but their previous reluctance is coming back to haunt them. The UK recently convicted radical cleric Anjem Choudary (and co-defendant Mohammed Rahman) of rallying support for ISIS, and court documents have revealed that neither Twitter nor YouTube agreed to take down key content. Twitter hasn't deleted his account, for example, despite British law enforcement's claims that it violates Twitter policies on promoting terrorism -- even after he was arrested in September 2014. It pulled Rahman's, but not in sync with an official request.
Judge tosses lawsuit filed against Twitter over ISIS activity
A district judge has tossed out a lawsuit accusing Twitter of playing a role in the terrorist-related deaths of two Americans by allowing ISIS activity on the website. The class-action lawsuit names the widows of Lloyd "Cark" Fields Jr. and James Damon Creach as plaintiffs. Fields Jr. and Creach were both American contractors who were shot to death in a shooting spree in Jordan last year. According to AP and The Wall Street Journal, the plaintiffs failed to convince Judge William H. Orrick from San Francisco that Twitter "knowingly provide[d] material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization."
Twitter was quick to pull extremist tweets following Nice attack
Twitter's response to online extremism has changed a lot in the past few years. Observers at observer groups like the Counter Extremism Project report that the social network was exceptionally speedy in removing pro-extremist accounts and tweets in the hours following the truck attack in Nice, France on July 14th. It moved with "swiftness we have not seen before," CEP says. Twitter hasn't commented on the specific actions, but it's apparent that the company is serious about its ban on terrorism.
The Pentagon is developing cyber warfare tools to fight ISIS
US Cyber Command chief Adm. Michael S. Rogers has created a dedicated unit tasked with developing a suite of malware and digital weapons that can be used to wage (a digital) war against ISIS. The Pentagon originally gave Cyber Command the daunting task of launching online attacks against the Islamic State earlier this year. Unfortunately, according to The Washington Post, Cybercom was ill-prepared for the role -- besides lacking the tools to get the job done, it didn't have the right people to pull it off. WP says the new team is called "Joint Task Force Ares," and some of their possible missions include disrupting the terrorist group's payment system and knocking their current chat app of choice offline.
ISIS' Twitter traffic reportedly dropped 45 percent in 2 years
If you ask the US government, the efforts to stifle ISIS' online propaganda are paying off. The White House reports that the extremist group's Twitter traffic has dropped 45 percent in the past 2 years, owing to both attempts to keep accounts offline and a surge of countering messages. To some extent, it was just a matter of getting up to speed. Officials admit that they made mistakes early on in fighting ISIS' online messaging (such as producing a lot of opposing statements in Engilsh), but they say they've both made more relevant content and done a better job of coordinating internet campaigns with its military strategy.
Iraqis use off-the-shelf drones to battle ISIS
Let's say you're leading an Iraqi militia. You want to reconnoiter ISIS fighters' positions, but you don't have the budget for military-grade UAVs or helicopters. What to do? For the Iraqis themselves, the answer is simple: buy everyday drones. As Wired notes, both Shia militias and Iraqi officials are using consumer drones bought in hobby and toy stores (like DJI's Phantom line) to observe ISIS positions and help call artillery strikes. They seldom last for more than 40 minutes in the air, but that's enough to provide a heads-up and improve accuracy.
New algorithm aims to predict ISIS attacks
A physicist from the University of Miami has created an algorithm that can scan the Islamic State's social media posts and may eventually be used to predict the group's next terrorist attack. In the journal Science today, Dr. Neil Johnson and his team described their method of searching through roughly a year's worth of posts on the Russia-based social network Vkontakte, looking for pro-ISIS statements in multiple languages. The resulting data allowed Johnson and team to build out "a statistical model aimed at identifying behavioral patterns among online supporters of ISIS."
ISIS worries that fake Android apps are spying on its ranks
ISIS' attempts to disseminate its extreme message through mobile apps might be backfiring. Motherboard has learned that the group is warning members of fake, malware-laden versions of its Android apps that allegedly spy on users. While it's not clear who's creating the apps (besides "dubious sources"), it's implied that at least one government is trying to snoop on ISIS through unsuspecting members. Those militants can't just stick to 'official' sources to be safe, either -- ISIS' official channels frequently go down, so many of those backing the group's hateful cause have no choice but to go through unofficial routes.
ISIS releases learning app to teach kids about tanks and rockets
A new Android app from the tech-savvy extremist group ISIS hopes to help out busy ISIS parents by teaching their kids to read and militarizing them at the same time. The app, called Huroof, was released via the Islamic State's Telegram channel and includes games for learning the letters of the Arabic alphabet with militaristic vocabulary words like "tank" and "rocket."
US launches its first cyberattacks against ISIS
The US no longer thinks that it's enough to hurt ISIS through airstrikes and cutting off propaganda channels -- it's starting a full-on digital warfare campaign. Cyber Command is launching its first attacks against ISIS' digital infrastructure in a bid to disrupt its communications and other basic functions. According to New York Times sources, this includes everything from imitating commanders to interrupting payments to fighters. This, in turn, could slow down ISIS as it second-guesses its moves for fear of being led into an American trap.
Twitter reportedly struggles to keep ISIS accounts offline
Twitter may be having some success in reducing ISIS' online presence, but it's undoubtedly facing an uphill battle. Threat intelligence outlet Recorded Future estimates that Twitter deleted over 26,000 pro-ISIS accounts in March, but saw 21,000 accounts created that same month. That's three times as many new accounts as ISIS supporters made back in September. If the figures are accurate, they suggest that Twitter is fighting to keep above water -- it can only do so much to purge accounts that are frequently recreated shortly after they're removed.
The military is taking cyber warfare a lot more seriously
Following the rather embarrassing revelation that the Pentagon has no idea who'd be in charge in the event of a cyber attack comes word that the military is stepping up its cyber warfare game. So much so that cyber is joining the ranks of other combatant commands like those dedicated to specific regions (Pacific, Europe, Africa, Middle East) and those focusing on spec-ops, transportation and nuclear forces, according to Defense One. Currently, cyber warfare sits as a "sub-unified command" under the U.S. Strategic Command and this move would apparently make the group faster and aid in more successful missions.
Pro-ISIS hackers threaten Facebook and Twitter over crackdowns
Surprise: ISIS isn't happy that social networks are taking down accounts sympathetic to its cause. Vocativ has obtained a video from a pro-ISIS hacking group that threatens retaliation against Facebook and Twitter for joining the US' campaign to fight online terrorist propaganda. The clip insists that the group will take 10 accounts for every one that Facebook or Twitter shuts down, and promises to eventually "delete" the sites entirely. There's also a segment where images of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey are riddled with bullet holes.
Report: ISIS's Twitter propaganda efforts have stalled
The Islamic State isn't having much luck recruiting new members online these days. Twitter suspended 125,000 accounts sympathetic to the jihadist organization between June and October of last year and it appears to be making an impact, according to a study being released Thursday by George Washington University's Program on Extremism.
ISIS help desk tells jihadis how to hide from authorities
The encrypted messaging service Telegram blocked 78 ISIS channels in 2015, but new ones just keep popping up. As detailed in a report provided to The Hill, the group has evolved an expanded technical "help desk" that can provide instructions to jihadists on how to escape the surveillance of Western authorities. It's operated by a group of ISIS members collectively called the Electronic Horizon Foundation (EHF), which was launched on January 30th. As of the beginning of this week, its Telegram channel had 2,200 members, although it hasn't posted much yet.
Twitter explains its handling of ISIS-linked accounts
One way ISIS has distinguished itself from other terrorist organizations is its use of social media to spread news and recruit followers. Now, following Google and Facebook, Twitter is revealing info about what it's doing to stop extremist groups from using the service to get their messages out. According to a story tweeted by its @Policy account, since mid-2015 Twitter has already banned some 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts. It's also increased the size of its team reviewing those reports, and turned spam fighting tools against the groups to help filter out related accounts that pop up.
