• May have to also look at governments taking down propaganda
• NO evaluation of effectiveness, instead, look at why people trying to take down social media sites – maybe have different reasons…
  • Particular anti-propaganda reasons
  • Anonymous is upset over Paris
  • Not good use of efforts/resources

http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02401

• Twitter study

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/isis-suspects/

• People convicted for affiliation with ISIS

https://www.recordedfuture.com/isis-twitter-activity/

• Twitter struggling to keep up with ISIS accts
• “Further investigation revealed a process where once an account was shut down by Twitter because of improper content, a new account with a similar name was almost instantly created. This new user handle was then promoted by other ISIS-related Twitter accounts. In this way, the ISIS supporters are able to circumvent the ongoing efforts by Twitter to remove them.”

http://time.com/3387065/isis-twitter-war-state-department/

• Think Again Turn Away = petty Twitter war, engaging with ISIS there is inappropriate

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/world/americas/isis-online-recruiting-american.html?_r=0

• Vulnerable young girl targeted by ISIS

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-jihadists-on-move-in-iraq-using-weapons-and-twitter-hashtags/

• Planned social media campaign

 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hackers-replace-dark-web-isis-propaganda-site-advert-prozac-1530385

• ISIS site replaced by Prozac ad

http://www.ghostsec.org

• Site is way to report extremists’ websites, to be verified, then taken down

http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/20/technology/isis-ghost-security-group/

• DigitaShadow
• GhostSec

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/beauty-queen-and-vigilante-female-hackers-declare-online-war-on-isis/ar-AAdwUwJ

• GhostSec female presence

https://twitter.com/TouchMyTweets

https://twitter.com/ISHuntingCIub

https://twitter.com/CtrlSec0

https://twitter.com/WauchulaGhost

• Anti-ISIS twitters

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/world/middleeast/behind-a-veil-of-anonymity-online-vigilantes-battle-the-islamic-state.html?_r=1

• How vigilantes are fighting ISIS
• Some ties to Anonymous, many lone wolves
• Effort heavily focused on Twitter
• “Whether this vigilantism is significantly suppressing the use of Twitter by the Islamic State also has yet to be understood.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/ghost-security-hackers-offshoot-anonymous-claim-they-disrupted-isis-attack-2077993

• Group claims intercepted messages
• How many accts have been removed 59,000
• GhostSec has 12 core members and 100s volunteers
• “forcibly remove content where official channels fail”

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/anonymous-activists-isis-twitter/409312/

• Story of individual guy, founded CtrlSec, which is no longer affiliated with Anonymous
• Many death threats to the guy
• 130 websites down
• Overwhelm servers with fake traffic
• Claims to have foiled attack in Tunisia
• Don’t use algorithm, track accts manually
• 200-600 accts identified daily
• Suspended users just make new accounts – argue they still suffered lost time/effort
• “Mikro claimed that since February, CtrlSec has helped remove 60,000 to 70,000 pro-ISIS Twitter account”
• Critized for accidentally shutting down non-ISIS accts

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/13/opinions/isis-twitter-crackdown/

• “whack-a-mole.” = pointless to target accts
• Suspensions got big guys
• ISIS making more and more accts
• Accounts becoming more insular/tightly knit

http://time.com/3751659/a-6-point-plan-to-defeat-isis-in-the-propaganda-war/

• What we do know, based on an analysis of tens of thousands of Twitter accounts, is that suspensions do limit the audience for ISIS’s gruesome propaganda.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/13/anonymous-hackers-islamic-state-isis-chan-online-war/

• Explains CtrlSec twitter bot using algorithm to flag accts
• Won’t do much but worth it to fight

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/world/middleeast/isis-is-skilled-on-twitter-using-thousands-of-accounts-study-says.html

• Review of study
• “Minimum of 46,000 Twitter accounts operate on behalf of the Islamic State
• Some say presence isn’t big comparatively, another guy says bigger than may seem

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan/isis_twitter_census_berger_morgan.pdf

• Study with lots of numbers

1. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/anonymous-activists-isis-twitter/409312/
   1. Individual guy, founded CtrlSec, which is no longer affiliated with Anonymous
   2. Don’t use algorithm, track accts manually
   3. 200-600 accts identified daily
   4. Suspended users just make new accounts – argue they still suffered lost time/effort
   5. “Mikro claimed that since February, CtrlSec has helped remove 60,000 to 70,000 pro-ISIS Twitter account”
   6. Criticized for accidentally shutting down non-ISIS accts