The First Amendment's Role in Regulating ISIS Media and Propaganda in the U.S.
Targeted Demographics
Youth, Women, and Foreign Fighters
“Real depictions of graphic or violent content:
Increasingly, YouTube is becoming an outlet for citizen journalists, documentarians and other users to publish accounts of what is happening in their daily lives. It is inevitable that some of these videos will contain content that is violent or graphic in nature.
If the violence shown in your video is particularly graphic, please make sure to post as much information as possible in the title and metadata to help viewers understand what they are seeing. Providing documentary or educational context can help the viewer, and our reviewers, understand why they may be seeing the disturbing content.
It’s not okay to post violent or gory content that’s primarily intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful. If a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional context and information. For instance, a citizen journalist who captures footage of protesters being beaten and uploads it with relevant information (date, location, context, etc) would likely be allowed. However, posting the same footage without contextual or educational information may be considered gratuitous and may be removed from the site.”
“Content Related to Terrorism":
YouTube strictly prohibits content intended to recruit for terrorist organizations, incite violence, celebrate terrorist attacks or otherwise promote acts of terrorism. We also do not permit foreign terrorist organizations to use YouTube. Content intended to document events connected to terrorist acts or news reporting on terrorist activities may be allowed on the site with sufficient context and intent. However, graphic or controversial footage may be subject to age-restrictions or a warning screen.”
“Reporting graphic or violent content:"
Flag the video: You may report videos that you believe violate this policy, or may not be appropriate for all ages, by flagging the video.”
Twitter Policies
Violent threats (direct or indirect): You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism.
Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.
Multiple account abuse: Creating multiple accounts with overlapping uses or in order to evade the temporary or permanent suspension of a separate account is not allowed.
A Brief History of ISIS
The use of the internet for the spread of terrorist ideologies did not begin with ISIS, but they are by far one of the most successful Middle Eastern terrorist organizations in its utilization. ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is defined by terrorism and extremist expert J.M. Berger, whose work has served as one of the main secondary sources for this paper, as a hybrid terrorist and insurgent organization. ISIS considers its mission to be the creation of an Islamic caliphate, or theological empire, with a violent fight waged against any governments that oppose their mission and do not follow their strict interpretation of Shariah law.
ISIS traces its roots back to al-Qaeda and and its founder Osama Bin Laden, who provided seed funding for the original faction of the group that moved from Afghanistan to Iraq and would go on to become ISIS. This faction was founded by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who used the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as his motivation for rolling out his roadmap for the jihadist mission to dominate the Middle East and destroy the powers in the West. A convicted criminal and altogether un-pious follower of Islam in his youth, Zarqawi fell into practicing ‘spiritual jihad’ while a part of Tablighi jamaat, a South Asian Islamic organization that functioned as a self-help group where he was eventually recruited to “join the insurgency against the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan” (Stern, Berger 2015). The connections he made during his time fighting here were pivotal in shaping his radicalization of the Muslim faith. His close association with Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Maqudisi as a spiritual guide is cited as one of the most influential relationships on his rhetoric as a proponent of jihad. Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Maquidisi is said to be “one of the architects of jihadi Salafism, an ideology based on the principle that any government that does not rule through a strict interpretation of Shariah is an infidel regime that must be violently opposed” (Stern, Berger 2015). In 2004 Zarqawi established al-Qaeda in Iraq, or AQI, after finally swearing allegiance to bin Laden. Zarqawi achieved military strength by funneling in foreign fighters through Syria and attracting fighters from disenfranchised Sunni tribes in Iraq who were left without jobs or infrastructure after their dismissal from the Iraqi Army by L. Paul Breumer, the designated administrator of Iraq for the United States. Zarqawi alienated many other potential supporters with his extreme acts of violence, with many condemning his use of suicide bombings and targeting of civilians. Higher ups in bin Laden’s al Qaeda wrote letters to Zarqawi urging him to moderate his tactics in order to align more with Iraqi leaders, but these orders were largely ignored. It was the increasingly violent actions of AQI, and its incitement of sectarian violence in particular, that would later inform and direct the operations and tactics used by ISIS.
On June 7, 2006, Zarqawi was killed in an American airstrike. AQI was then put under the command of Abu Ayub al-Masri, an Egyptian bomb maker. It was under his leadership that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was declared in an attempt to brand AQI as Iraqi to dispel criticisms of the group’s foreign leadership. Iraqi Abu Umar al-Baghdadi was brought in as the head of the ISI in the group’s continued attempt to align with Iraq and from 2006 to 2011 the main focus of ISI was to enforce Islamic law in the pursuit of the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq. Under Baghdadi in 2013 ISI aggressively expanded its territorial holdings, moving into Syria and the ISIS that is known today was officially named. ISIS targeted government groups and others that opposed their movement, as well as the Iraqi military. In 2017 alone there have been a recorded 127 attacks perpetrated by the Islamic State, with an estimated 1,111 fatalities. A timeline of the most recent major attacks inspired or executed by ISIS can be found below.
Abstract
and
Introduction
This paper examines the overall social media strategy used by ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The proliferation of ideas and of ammunition from ISIS may have increased and gained more traction historically than any other large terrorist group because of social media and internet access. These readily available tools connect the radical fringe group to an ever-expanding audience as technology has become available globally. Social media has served to brand and re-brand ISIS over the years, enhancing the marketing of their ideologies to thousands and this paper analyzes ISIS’ media production geared specifically towards three key demographic targets; youth, women, and foreign fighters.
The implications the First Amendment has for the use of the internet and social media by ISIS as a form of expression in the United States is synthesized, where it dictates how, when, and where ISIS and its supporters express ideologies using platforms like Twitter and YouTube. A comparative analysis of how these media companies are responding to ISIS’ use of their platforms, and how this affects their regulatory policies, is conducted with the conclusion that YouTube is much more resistant to the complete eradication of all ISIS material than Twitter.
