ISIS and How It Recruits in Cyberspace: Findings from Social Media Research in Turkey

• In Event: Communication, Social Media, and Terrorist Violence

Abstract

Social media tools may easily turn into means by which terrorist organizations to disseminate their ideology, provide belongingness to the organization, legitimize their practices through misleading information and propagandize for recruitment.
The Syrian conflict led to a resurrection of ISIS in terms of recruitment, financing, propaganda, and enlisting itself as an actor in the Middle East. ISIS is the most successful terrorist organization in utilizing social media tools to make propaganda.
The aim of this paper is to share the results of a social media research which focuses on social media and terrorism by analyzing how pro-ISIS Twitter users see and legitimize ISIS and its ideology on Turkish cyberspace. Following an extensive review of literature on ISIS’s historical background along with its capabilities in various fields, the research analyzes tweeting patterns of sampled pro-ISIS Twitter accounts and examines the contents of messages posted by those accounts.
The data used in this study pertains to all 25,403 unique tweet messages publicly posted by290 Turkish-speaking pro-ISIS accounts between July 1 and 31, 2015. 17,948 tweets have
been deleted after released.

Authors

• Suleyman Ozeren, Global Policy and Strategy Institute

• Halil Ibrahim Canbegi, Global Policy and Strategy Institute