ISIS using Tik Tok to incite Christmas attacks
ISIS has increased dependence on social media, especially the video-focused networking service, Tik Tok, in drawing in new recruits.
This comes in the wake of the repeated setbacks and the defeats
sustained by the terrorist organization in the past period.
ISIS uses the service in spreading videos that incite hatred. The
same videos also encourage the affiliates and the followers of the group to
stage terrorist attacks, especially during Christmas in Europe.
Recruitment
The British tabloid newspaper, The Sun, has conducted an
investigation into the use of social media by ISIS.
It referred to the presence of dozens of accounts on social networking
sites that propagandize the rhetoric of terrorist organizations and incite hatred
against non-Muslims.
The Sun said one of the videos published during the past days urged
ISIS supporters to launch attacks that cause a massive human toll among
Europeans during Christmas.
ISIS is apparently still able to disseminate its terrorist message,
despite its loss of most of the territories it used to control and the killing
of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in 2019.
In doing this, the terrorist organization takes advantage of the
outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
Revealing
The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies published a report in
mid-2021, in which it says that ISIS has been utilizing Tik Tok since late 2019
and early 2020.
It notes that the terrorist group depends on this video-focused
service because it is very popular among young people, the most important
groups targeted by the organization.
Christmas
The Sun said a video posted on Tik Tok describes Christmas as a 'celebration
of non-Muslims who do not believe in God and make fun of what is forbidden'.
It said ISIS had asked its affiliates to join in crowds under disguise
to blow themselves up and cause panic and a huge human toll.