THE STRATEGIC USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY THE ISLAMIC STATE: EXPLORING THE CONTENT AND TECHNOLOGY OF EXTREMISM

In 2014, the Islamic State (IS) captured the world’s attention with the declaration of the Caliphate. IS showed significant success in exploiting the social media landscape to deliver costly signals that advanced its outbidding, intimidation, and polarization strategies. This thesis explored the nature of the content produced by IS from 2013 to 2018 and explained its primary purposes. Specifically, IS exploited social media platforms to intimidate internal opposition to its ascendancy and dissuade Western countries from intervening against its self-declared state. IS also has portrayed itself through social media as both an uncompromising militant movement and an effective rebel government in order to outbid rival rebel groups, especially those affiliated with al Qaeda. Its extremist violence has a dual purpose. Inside its territories, it seeks to polarize Muslims into clear categories of Sunni in-groups and Shiite out-groups; outside of its territories, it seeks to polarize the world into Muslim in-groups against non-Muslim out-groups. Therefore, despite its fanatical aura, IS deploys violence strategically to achieve recruitment and deterrence goals. Apart from these strategies, this thesis describes the nature of the social media technology used by IS media operators and the ways they sought to circumvent restrictions on social media. There are clear patterns of exploiting social media based on tested models of social media campaigns that advance its objectives.

Department dc:contributor.department

National Security Affairs (NSA)

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Christodoulopoulos, Efstathios

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hafez, Mohammed M.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is reserved by the copyright owner.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/66615

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/66615