It Tailors Messages to Lure Fresh Recruits

The New Paper

17 June 2015

Extremist sites used to be largely in Arabic before English sites popped up to attract those in the West.

Now, there are hundreds of sites, including those on social media platforms, that cater to those who read Bahasa Indonesia and Malay, said Ms Navhat Nuraniyah, an associate research fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

And each time one is taken down, a dozen new ones take its place to promote Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) propaganda.

… Professor Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert with RSIS said that ISIS has shifted from a Syria- and Iraq-centric focus to become a global network on the back of social media platforms including Twitter.

“It is an ISIS imperative to reach out to the lower strata, to people who are disfranchised and offer incentives to low-income family,” he added.

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