For The First Time In Its History The Islamic State Online Propaganda Channels Went Silent For More Than 24 Hours

The Islamic State group usually posts more than a dozen messages a day on messenger application Telegram but its channels went mysteriously quiet between Wednesday and Thursday, in what analysts said was an "unprecedented" silence

AFP: In 'unprecedented' hiatus, IS media offline for a day

The Islamic State group's online propaganda channels went mysteriously quiet for more than a full day between Wednesday and Thursday, in what analysts said was an "unprecedented" silence.

IS, which uses messaging application Telegram to broadcast daily updates on military operations and claims of attacks, published nothing between 0900 GMT on Wednesday and 1001 GMT on Thursday.

Charlie Winter, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, called the silence "unprecedented."

"The deceleration in the production of IS media has been particularly profound over the last couple of weeks," said Winter.

"But there were no 24-hour periods when it was completely silent," he told AFP.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I am sure that this did not help those who are pushing the Islamic State's message .... Hackers Put Porn In ISIS Propaganda (Newsweek). More here .... They Planted Porn in ISIS Propaganda, Just for Starters, Then Sowed Chaos and Confusion in the 'Caliphate' (Daily Beast).

The Islamic State's Propaganda Machine Has Been Hit Hard By The Deaths Of Its Producers

Daily Mail: ISIS propaganda machine is hit hard by deaths of key leaders and setbacks on the battlefields

* ISIS has lost several of its leading propaganda experts to drone strikes recently
* Experts claim the quality and production values of its videos has declined
* ISIS has lost large areas of territory across both Syria and Iraq in recent weeks
* The terror group has abandoned plans to attack and seize Iraq's capital Baghdad

The ISIS propaganda machine has been dealt a significant blow with the deaths of senior members involved in creating its slick videos.

Western airstrikes have killed senior members of the ISIS propaganda machine, significantly reducing the number of videos published by the organisation.

Also, the production quality of the terror group's videos have been affected as the organisation is defeated on the battlefield.

One recent video featured one-leggd jihadi Abu Shuaib al-Maslawi. He was filmed hopping on his left leg toward the explosives-laden black SUV that he would minutes later plow into a group of Iraqi troops in the northern city of Mosul.

Read more ....

WNU editor: I have also noticed this decline in ISIS propaganda videos (and quality) since last year when I first posted on this website my wonderment on why the Islamic State's propaganda arm was not a priority target .... A Look At The Islamic State's AMAQ News Agency (March 24, 2017). I spoke too soon .... they were a high priority target, and now many of  ISIS's producers are deservedly dead.

The U.S. Military Is Targeting The Islamic State 's Online Operators

A screen grab of Rachid Kassim taken from an Islamic State group propaganda video dating back to July 2016. Welayat Nineveh, AFP

L.A. Times: The U.S. military is targeting Islamic State's virtual caliphate by hunting & killing its online operatives one-by-one

The months-long manhunt for French-born Rachid Kassim ended one chilly morning early this year when a drone-launched missile destroyed his battered white pickup truck as it motored through the besieged Iraqi city of Mosul.

The 29-year-old former rapper had cast a grim shadow in international counter-terrorism circles. He spoke fluent French, once beheaded a man in an online video and played a role in a string of terrorist plots — two successful — in France last year.

The Feb. 8 drone strike notched a victory for a U.S.-led effort that seeks to silence Islamic State operatives who use social media, encrypted messaging and other online tools to reach disaffected Muslims overseas and to launch what counter-terrorism experts now call “remote-controlled” attacks.

As Islamic State steadily loses ground in Iraq and Syria, its ability to sponsor and inspire headline-grabbing attacks abroad looms larger than ever — providing the militants the appearance of lethal viability despite the caliphate’s collapsing borders.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The war against the message and ideology of the Islamic State is going to be just as bloody and just as long as the war against the on-the-ground fighters of this group and those who espouse a radical and militant brand of Islam.

Why Do Jihadists Have Trouble Resisting Resist Social Media

YouTube

Austin Bodetti, Daily Beast: Fatal Attraction: ISIS Just Can’t Resist Social Media

From the Taliban to the so-called Islamic State, computers, cellphones, and social media are used as vital weapons—and offer critical vulnerabilities.

“No computer is safe,” Donald Trump told us over the weekend. And nobody knows that better than the world’s terrorists. But at the end of the day, just like the rest of us, they still stay online—and in many cases, fortunately, that costs them.

As ISIS overtook much of Iraq and Syria in 2014, the terrorist organization ran a parallel campaign on the internet from Facebook and Twitter to Telegram and WhatsApp. Social media offered the militants an opportunity to recruit jihadi followers and spread radical interpretations of Islam. Articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post foretold the dangers of the caliphate’s rule over internet messaging platforms and social networking services popular with teenagers.

The news media neglected to mention what the militants had risked in their ambitious online venture. In theory, every computer and phone that ISIS used intelligence, law-enforcement, and security agencies could track, passing the information to warplanes stalking the skies of the Middle East.

Read more ....

WNY Editor: Even though every Jihadist probably knows that they are being tracked via through their cell phones and computers .... they just cannot help themselves .... proving that everyone has an ego and the need to be recognised .... even Jihadists who are bent on spreading Sharia around the world.

Military Pressure Is 'Killing' The Islamic State Propaganda Machine

© Dado Ruvic / Reuters

New York Times: ISIS Media Output Drops as Military Pressure Rises, Report Says

WASHINGTON — The vaunted propaganda operations of the Islamic State, which helped lure more than 30,000 foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq, have dropped off drastically as the extremist group has come under military pressure, according to a study by terrorism researchers at West Point.

In addition, the researchers found, there has been a striking shift away from publications and social media portraying a functioning state with competent bureaucrats, thriving businesses and happy citizens. The Islamic State, also called ISIS and ISIL, claims that it is building a new caliphate — or unified Muslim land — a claim that has become increasingly threadbare.

“It’s not just the numeric decline,” said Daniel Milton, director of research at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and the author of the new report. “The caliphate was their big selling point. Now there’s an inability to say we’re doing the things that make us a state. And that was behind their broad appeal.”

At the peak of the Islamic State’s media output, in August 2015, the group released more than 700 items from official outlets in Syria and several other countries. During the month of August 2016, after a year of airstrikes and other assaults, that number had declined to under 200, according to the study.

Read more ....

Update: ISIS propaganda crippled by military defeats, study finds (RT)

WNU Editor: This was long overdue.

Why The U.S. Cannot Match The Propaganda Produced By The Islamic State

William McCants & Clint Watts, Daily Beast: Why the U.S. Can’t Make a Magazine Like ISIS

ISIS’s propaganda success isn’t just online. Its magazine, Dabiq, is read all over the world. If only the U.S. government was so creative and effective.

The Obama Administration attributes much of ISIS’s success at communicating to its technological savvy, which has elevated the group to a global media and terrorist phenomenon. The president has gone so far as to say that the Paris attackers were a “bunch of killers with good social media.”

Despite the praise heaped on the so-called Islamic State for its cutting-edge propaganda online, one of its most effective products is decidedly low tech. Dabiq, ISIS’s online news magazine, has a small but devoted readership that spans the globe. News of advances on the battlefield excite them—more evidence that God’s kingdom on earth has returned and grows. Stories of fighters inspire them—more models to emulate as they contemplate what role they can play in the divine drama unfolding.

WNU Editor: The editors behind DABIQ clearly have the passion .... and I would not be surprised if they are doing it without pay.

New Islamic State Video Shows The 'End Of The World'

Army: Part of the footage shows the ISIS troops lined up in the fight between 'Crusaders' and 'Believers'

Mirror: ISIS release chilling new 'end of the world' video showing final battle with 'crusaders'

The terror group have released footage showing an ISIS 'armoured vehicle advancing towards Colosseum in reference to the 'armies of Rome'

ISIS has released chilling new footage depicting its apocalyptic vision of the end of the world.

It has titled the video 'Meeting at Dabiq' which refers to the location of a final battle between the 'Crusaders' and the 'Believers'.

The video also shows an ISIS 'armoured unit' advancing towards the Colosseum in reference to the 'armies of Rome'.

WNU Editor: And the terror threats keep on piling up .... Geneva, Toronto, Chicago on High Alert for Terror Attacks (China Topix).