The ISIS group’s Twitter traffic has plunged 45 per cent in the past two years, the Obama administration says, as the US and its allies have countered messages of jehadi glorification with a flood of online images and statements about suffering and enslavement at the hands of the extremist organisation.
Among the images: A teddy bear with Arabic writing and messages saying ISIS “slaughters childhood,” “kills innocence,” “lashes purity” or “humiliates children.” A male hand covering a female’s mouth, saying ISIS “deprives woman her voice.”
A woman in a black niqab (veil), bloody tears coming from a bruised eye, and the caption: “Women under ISIS. Enslaved. Battered. Beaten. Humiliated. Flogged.”
US officials cite the drop in Twitter traffic as a sign of progress toward eliminating propaganda they blame for inspiring attacks around the world. When the US formed an international coalition in September 2014 to fight ISIS, the administration outlined multiple goals: military action and cutting off foreign fighters and finances, confronting the group’s extremist ideology and stemming the militants’ growing popularity in the Arab world and beyond.