ISIS: The use of social media

Social media platforms have become a place where the terrorist organization ISIS is able to create social identities and messages that are tailored to specific audiences. Social media has also allowed anonymity and privacy for the terrorist group. The purpose of this research was to examine the use of social media by ISIS through the spread of propaganda, Western recruitment, and fundraising. The importance of countermeasures in effort to combat ISIS' presence on social media were also discussed. The results show that ISIS has developed a highly sophisticated propaganda campaign division called the Al-Hayat Media Center. Al-Hayat is an ISIS media branch specifically targeting Western and non-Arabic-speaking audiences. ISIS also spreads the propaganda using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Research also revealed the need for countermeasures to be implemented along with stronger government monitoring, which comes with free speech and privacy limitation concerns if too much government involvement. In conclusion, the research indicated that ISIS would continue to grow with social media and the Internet. Countermeasures need to be implemented by governments at local and federal levels but may become disputable due to free speech and privacy violation laws in various countries. However, social media platforms are currently able to provide their own countermeasures which will aid in the decline of ISIS' propaganda, recruitment and funding methods over social media.;Keywords: Cybersecurity, ISIS, social media, social, qualitative, terrorism, Dr. Albert Orbinati.