Hypertargeting Facebook Profiles Vulnerable to ISIS Recruitment with “Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Video Clips” in Multiple Facebook Campaigns

Anne Speckhard,Haider Shaghati,Molly Ellenberg,Neima Izadi

doi:10.12924/johs2020.16010016

Abstract

Despite the territorial demise of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], their cyberoperations continue to entice supporters. In an effort to disrupt ISIS’s appeal, the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism has produced over 150 short video clips featuring ISIS insiders denouncing the group, published in over 100 Facebook campaigns in multiple languages and regions. This article details 16 campaigns hyper-targeted at profiles that, based on predetermined and assessed indicators, suggested increased risk of exposure to ISIS-related content. Qualitative and quantitative metrics possibly suggest positive changes in online attitudes and behavior, reducing support and incitement to terrorism.

Highlights

What the Report does not count as human insecurity is what Galtung calls 'structural violence', the slow death from hunger and preventable or curable diseases, caused not by intentional acts of commission, but by neglect, by acts of omission, by gross inequality and by an unjust structure of society
The Report fully ignores the fourth pillar of human security, on which the other three so frequently depend: the stability, productivity and resilience of environmental support structures
Its optimistic outlook is not anything new; previous Reports from 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009/10 invariably announced declines in the number of armed conflicts and their deadliness, in genocide, in human rights abuses, and in terrorism [6]. Those claims are supported by the work of Joshia Goldstein and Steven Pinker, showing that wars are becoming less common and on average less deadly

Summary

Introduction

What the Report does not count as human insecurity is what Galtung calls 'structural violence', the slow death from hunger and preventable or curable diseases, caused not by intentional acts of commission, but by neglect, by acts of omission, by gross inequality and by an unjust structure of society. The Report fully ignores the fourth pillar of human security, on which the other three so frequently depend: the stability, productivity and resilience of environmental support structures. Its optimistic outlook is not anything new; previous Reports from 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009/10 invariably announced declines in the number of armed conflicts and their deadliness, in genocide, in human rights abuses, and in terrorism [6].

Results

Conclusion