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nicolet1189

How ISIS Games Twitter - The Atlantic - 1 views

  • strong, organic support online.
  • strategies that inflate and control its message.
  • using social media to recruit, radicalize and raise funds,
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  • Twitter app called The Dawn of Glad Tidings, or just Dawn.
  • way to keep up on the latest news about the jihadi group.
  • Once you sign up, the app will post tweets to your account
  • spaced out to avoid triggering Twitter’s spam-detection algorithms
  • organized hashtag campaigns
  • repetitively tweet hashtags at certain times of day so that they trend on the social network. 
  • ISIS hashtag consistently outperforms that of the group’s main competitor in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, even though the two groups have a similar number of supporters online.
  • ISIS also uses hashtags to focus-group messaging and branding concepts, much like a Western corporation might.
  • ISIS does have legitimate support online—but less than it might seem.
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    Author J.M. Berger discusses ISIS's strategy on Twitter, comparing their highly skilled techniques on this platform to the likes of a P.R./ marketing team working for a Western corporation. Berger goes on to discuss programs that automatically post tweets to users accounts, an app they developed that provides updates, and an intricate system able to surpass Twitter's spam and security teams.
nicolet1189

ISIS Tactics Illustrate Social Media's New Place In Modern War | TechCrunch - 0 views

  • modern warfare, where online propaganda plays a central role.
  • ISIS makes use of its decentralized structur
  • propaganda tools is an app called “The Dawn of Glad Tidings,”
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  • users consent to allowing ISIS to post to their social-media accounts. To avoid Twitter’s spam-detection algorithms, Berger noted, the app even spaces out its posts.
  • 27,000 Twitter accounts that mentioned the ISIS positively.
  • 40,000 tweets in a single day,
  • 700,000 accounts discussed the terrorist group.
  • ISIS tries to get its content to trend globally.
  • using a #worldcup2014
  • “When an account gets shut down, a new one is immediately created, and they use other guys to promote the [new] account,” Truvé tells me. “It’s kind of a whack-a-mole thing.”
  • “The volume of those tweets was enough to make any search for ‘Baghdad’ on Twitter generate the image among its first results,” Berger noted, “which is certainly one means of intimidating the city’s residents.”
  • , propaganda has one crucial deficiency: It’s not the truth.
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    Author Jillian Melchoir relates recent participation in groups like ISIS as spawning a new type of modern warfare. Melchoir continues, describing ISIS's presence on Twitter where they regularly get their content to trend globally for example hijacking popular hasthags like #worldcup2014.
eyadalhasan

Oil rout and global volatility take toll on Dubai - 0 views

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    A closely watched indicator of Dubai's economic health on Wednesday revealed the first contraction of its private sector economy since the recession of 2009, underlining the growing impact on the city-state of low oil prices and global economic
fcastro2

UN, Russia take lead in Syria diplomacy - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East - 0 views

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Egypt on Feb. 9-10 signals a “new phase” in Russian diplomacy in the Middle East.
  • Despite deteriorating ties with the United States and NATO countries over Ukraine, Maxim Suchkov writes, "Russia is anything but isolated, while Europe is no longer the promised land for the state that seeks recognition of its global influence."
  • Egypt and Russia have “shared positions on a number of regional issues; closely aligned interests (particularly on fighting international terrorism); a successful track record of bilateral cooperation on various fronts; and a strong personal bond of trust between respective leaders.”
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  • Egypt’s leadership has grown frustrated with US admonitions and criticisms of its governance record, and from Cairo’s perspective, bewildering discussions of conditions on US military aid
  • Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is hardly ready to ditch his country’s long-standing ties to the United States, the prospect of Russian arms and assistance could prove a useful complement to what some in Cairo consider more uncertain US support, especially as Egypt faces an ongoing terrorist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.
  • Naumkin adds th
  • Russia also considers Egypt an ally in its efforts to broker a political settlement in Syria
  • as a result of the Russian president’s visit to Cairo, the parties might agree to pool their forces in the context of a Syrian settlement.
  • It might be understandable for some analysts to dismiss the Moscow conference, given the diplomatic false starts over four years in a conflict that has left more than 150,000 dead, 7.6 million displaced, 3.2 million refugees, 12.2 million in need of humanitarian assistance and at least 680,000 injured, according to the United Nations.
  • Syrian opposition figures were not allowed to participate in the Jan. 26-29 Moscow conference as representatives of opposition parties, such as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces (SOC), the leading umbrella group based in Turkey
  • The absence of the SOC and other representatives of the external opposition no doubt limited the potential impact of the conference,
  • Participants agreed to an 11-point list of “Moscow Principles” and a four-point “Appeal to the International Community” affirming the need to fight terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (IS), rejecting outside interference and calling for increased humanitarian aid, while agreeing to meet again in a month’s time.
  • acknowledged the possibility for other organizations to play a role in future talks
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vigorously supported the law, claiming its passage is essential in defending democracy
  •  “Success tempted the AKP, prompting it to revert back to its Islamism and initiate a much more ambitious narrative of building a new regional order, and even a new global order. Meanwhile, Erdogan turned into an unquestionable leader who is not limited by facts and creates his own facts, as envisioned by his Islamist ideology and extraordinary intuition. In the eyes of his hard-core supporters, he is not a mere political leader who formulates pragmatic policies. He is a total leader who redefines everything.”
hkerby2

Ninety-six percent of Syria's declared chemical weapons destroyed - 0 views

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    according to the UN, 96 percent of Syria's chemical weapons have been destroyed and the preparation for destruction of the 12 remaining facilities is underway. The UN hopes that peace and political process will be Syria's main priority soon.
tdford333

The Whispers of WhatsApp: Beyond Facebook and Twitter in the Middle East - 2 views

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    This is a repost to learn how this works.
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    Like many in Beirut this summer, I found out about one of the recent bombings from a WhatsApp message on my mobile phone. I received a single word text from a friend: infijar (explosion). A second later the image below popped up on my phone screen. ...
mcooka

Education Has Never Been Deadlier for Syria's Children - Save the Children - 0 views

  • Education is now one of the deadliest pursuits for children and teachers inside Syria, as the country's schools are increasingly being damaged and destroyed in the conflict.
  • chools are being increasingly forced to close because of the conflict
  • Syria has now descended to the second worst rate of school attendance in the world with 2.8 million children out of schoo
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  • t is absolutely shameful that the obligation to protect schools is not being respected in this conflict
  • Syrian refugee children in neighbouring countries are facing disturbing rates of abuse, bullying, corporal punishment and marginalization
  • p to half of children surveyed by the agency in Syria reported they were 'rarely' or 'never' able to concentrate in class
  • Syrian children are dropping out of school by the day, and the international community has to step up its response to ensure that we do not lose an entire generation of children."
  • Four years into the Syria crisis, overall enrolment in Syrian schools has halved from near 100% pre-crisis levels, while enrolment in the hardest hit areas such as Aleppo has plummeted to just 6%
  • And those children who have managed to escape the conflict in Syria are also missing out on education with devastating consequences. One in 10 Syrian refugee children across the region are estimated to be working, and the figure is likely to be much higher. In Jordan, 47% of refugee families reported relying partly or entirely on their children's income in a recent assessment.
  • We have heard from children being cursed and ridiculed by teachers in host countries, being told that they have ruined their country or to go back to Syria," Hearn said. "Others face corporal punishment at school. In Egypt alone, 30% of children we interviewed told us they were being hit by teachers and 70% are being verbally abused
  • Refugee children are also faced with learning an unfamiliar curriculum or even a teacher speaking a language they cannot understand.
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    This article is focused on the failing education in Syria. Syrian children have stopped attending school out of fear for their lives. An almost perfect 100% attendance rate plummeted to 6%. Syrian refugee children are forced to use different school curriculum's which can be difficult and confusing.  
ralph0

United Nations News Centre - Syria: water restored in Aleppo after a 48-day shutdown, U... - 0 views

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    It is a relief to see that water is finally making it back to Aleppo. The city has been under siege and civilians have been deprived of water. This article makes a valid point, showing that water has been used as a weapon of war.
eyadalhasan

Hard-working traditionalist Salman to take Saudi throne - FT.com - 0 views

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    For years, Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz was described as Saudi Arabia's king-in-waiting. A hard-working traditionalist, the 79-year-old embodies the pragmatism that has allowed the al-Saud's influence to endure, keeping close contacts with both
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