American officials report that ISIL’s Twitter traffic has plunged nearly 45 per cent in the past two years. This is a welcome development but it should not be misinterpreted to mean that the online battle against the militants has been won. The White House announcement shows that targeting ISIL messaging online can produce results, but the sheer number of social media platforms means that the battlefield is a complex and disjointed one.
Last year, the United States and the UAE launched the Sawab Centre, a joint digital communications hub in Abu Dhabi, to counter extremist propaganda. The primary aim of the centre is to weaken ISIL’s ability to recruit people online by undermining their messaging efforts on social media. ISIL’s plummeting Twitter traffic is certainly thanks to the counter propaganda efforts carried out by the Sawab Centre and others. But this is only one battle in a much longer war.
While Twitter is one of the most popular social media outlets, there are others including the messaging service Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. Every month, social media companies announce fresh platforms with innovative features aimed at gaining users.
Just because ISIL’s traffic is dipping on one platform doesn’t mean that it is not rising on another. Telegram, an advanced messaging application that is known for high levels of encryption, has been a favourite outlet for the militants to disseminate their propaganda, especially after major terrorist attacks.
Containing ISIL’s social media messaging is a bit like a game of hide and seek. As soon as you find and disable one platform, the militants pop up on another one, which is why the endeavours of the programmers at the Sawab Centre are so important. The fact that ISIL Twitter traffic has dropped is proof that the strategy of online containment can pay dividends. Coupled with military victories, the international community is slowly depriving ISIL of the oxygen it needs to continue.
