The report makes interesting reading. It goes into detail about various blogs that disseminate IS group information and how recruits and supporters must register to read or view certain sites, but how they are also provided with free software so they cannot be easily identified.
The report says that the Al Bayan radio station in Mosul is now important listening for those in Mosul because, not only does it broadcast IS leaders' speeches, it also always transmits instructions about daily life under the IS group, including new rules and planned events.
The report also mentions the IS group's women's magazine, which publishes religious rules for women living under IS rule as well as interviews with fighters' wives. The report also suggests that a lot of the supervisors of the Arabic language pro-IS sites are Saudis because of the distinctive style of language.
“The IS group has an army of supporters who work 24 hours a day to control social media, especially on Twitter,” Abbas told NIQASH. “Our study estimates that there are around 1 million followers of pages that support this organisation, or pages linked to it.”
The monitoring organisation's report also concluded that in the Arab world there was now a close and growing link between all forms of violence and extremism and how social media was used by those who wanted to promote it.
“Since the Arab Spring, there's been a transformation in how we understand social media,” Abbas concluded.
(Social Media image via Shutterstock)
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