Crowdsourcing Jihad: IS and al-Qa‘ida’s Use of the Internet and Social Media – Part IV

IS: Your Grandpa’s al-Qa‘ida This Ain’t

It is of no doubt that IS is the most advanced and effective terrorist organization that the world has ever seen. It is the very best at recognizing these previously discussed technological paradigm shifts, adjusting their narratives accordingly and taking advantage of the situation. Geography is of no consequence; their objective is world wide, global domination.

Al-Qa‘ida was a discreet structure and element; they tried to migrate their philosophies to others, but the organization was almost contained and the United States government was able to make a lot of progress against them. IS represents the very worst in development. IS is a phenomenon that has snowballed in terms of resonance and appeal. And they have been very successful at generated a lot of resonance and appeal in states such as Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Nigeria, Yemen, Libya, South Asia and Egypt.

In the United States it is apparent that IS is targeting its propaganda machine at the emotional needs of young Americans, regardless of their social or economic backgrounds. They implore people to engage and speak with the youth of America about their hopes, dreams, religious questions, etc. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey elaborated on the novelty of IS social media use:

Your grandfather’s al Qaeda, if you wanted to get propaganda, you had to go find it. Find where Inspire magazine was and read it. If you want to talk to a terrorist, you had to send an email into Inspire magazine and hope that Anwar al Awlaki would email you back. Now all that’s in your pocket. All that propaganda is in your pocket, and the terrorist is in your pocket. You can have direct communication with a terrorist in Syria all day and night, and so the effect of that – especially on troubled minds and kids – it works! It’s buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz. It’s the constant feed, the constant touching, so it’s very, very different and much more effective at radicalizing that your grandfather’s al Qaeda model.

Director Comey is touching upon what is categorized in this paper as the bio-digital evolution. As discussed, the youth and population in general experiencing the preliminary effects of how increased technological capabilities and continuous access to the Internet are affecting everyday lives. Reducing the schism between human biology and our technological machinery, between our physical reality and the networked virtual reality. As this divide becomes smaller and smaller, and in some instances has begun to intersect and overlap, people are able to exchange more information faster, not just with machines, but also with other people; this is a bio-digital, integration evolution. And Islamic extremists around the world are recognizing these paradigm shifts, adjusting their narratives accordingly and taking advantage of new opportunities.