With the invention of social media, it seems that terrorists have found a new way to spread their message, organize attacks, and recruit followers. We have seen how they have used social media like Twitter to great effect, but apparently it seems that terrorist groups like ISIS are no longer as influential on Twitter as they used to be.According to a report from Associated Press, the US Statement Department claims that ISIS has seen a 45% drop in traffic on the social network. Apparently this is largely due to a push by the Global Engagement Center, a US government agency that combats ISIS propaganda messages with their own.
According to the center’s head Michael Lumpkin, “We’re denying ISIL the ability to operate uncontested online, and we’re seeing their social media presence decline. Anti-ISIL audiences are increasingly vocal on social media. This only weakens ISIL’s ability to recruit, a key aim of our messaging efforts.”
This is not the first time we’re seeing such efforts. Earlier this year Facebook attempted to combat the messages of terrorists by spreading their own positive messages. We’ve also heard how Facebook and Google have been quietly removing extremist videos, and Twitter has obviously helped as well by suspending over 100,000 ISIS-related accounts.