How to stop ISIS propaganda using ‘diversity’
ISIS has a new tool to help its followers spread its message, a website called Diversify.
The new platform, created by the group in early 2017, will help it spread its ideology without necessarily needing the word “isis.”
“Our goal is to build a platform that will help you to find and understand the truth, to expose your enemies, and to be aware of the problems that are plaguing your country,” a Diversified.com spokesperson said in a statement.
Diversifies website is an app for smartphones that lets users easily navigate to a list of “disputed narratives” in Arabic-speaking countries and find “alternative narratives.”
The list of narratives includes those that have been widely reported, such as the Islamic State’s propaganda videos, the United States’ drone strikes, and the deaths of civilians in Syria.
ISIS uses the Diversives app to spread its propaganda, but it also uses other tools to spread extremist ideas.
For example, the group has been using the hashtag #FreeZein, which refers to the Kurdish fighters who took part in the Raqqa operation to liberate the city of Raqqa from the Islamic group.
According to a May 2016 report by the nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, the hashtag has been used more than 20,000 times in the last two months, including in the Dives app.
The group has also been using a hashtag for the same reason: to attract attention to its fight.
The Diversities app is just one of a number of new tools ISIS has developed to spread radical views.
It is also making use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat to spread the group’s message.
In March, ISIS released an audio recording purportedly showing how it kidnapped, raped, and executed two U.S. journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
The audio was released through an app called the “Siege of Al Quds.”
In June, ISIS issued a video of Foley being beheaded, and it published a series of messages and photos of hostages it claimed it held, including American journalists Steven Sosnik and Alan Gross.
On Tuesday, ISIS claimed responsibility for the Foley and Gross killings, and released a video showing Foley and Sosnic being executed.