Social media blows up over ISIL offensive

The conquest of Mosul in Iraq by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been avidly watched with horror and concern across the world.

A campaign of intimidation and propaganda by the group has been overwhelmingly driven by effective use of social media, spreading messages, photos and videos.

It was reported on Friday, in the Daily Telegraph, that one of ISIL’s Arabic Twitter accounts had tweeted the following:

“Praise be to Allah, who gave Twitter to the mujahideen so that they may share their joys and not have to listen to the BBC, al-Arabia, Al-Jazeera.”

The tweet highlights the numerous ways ISIL have exploited Twitter for their own use as numerous accounts have been set up purporting to support or represent them in both Arabic and English.

The account @AL3gneg has over 25,000 followers and tweets, in arabic, updates of ISIS's progression through Iraq.

Their presence has unsuprisingly provoked some backlash

@Dawla_NewsMedia, officially titled the Islamic State Media (although now going by the name 'Not Official'), generally accepted as the English-language mouthpiece for ISIL, announced he was closing the account after harassment from Turkish and Kurdish users.

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/477042536171991040

The user @Dawla_NewsMedia claimed that members of the left-wing Kurdish organisations Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) were sending abusive, racist tweets filled with “bad language”.

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/477015240732053505

Eventually this appears to have led to a decision to close the account. The last few tweets promised that he would start a new feed where he would be able to keep the news “nice & pure from the stinky racism & nationalism.”

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/477042600395153409

The heckling stems to a large degree from the news that ISIL had taken over the Turkish consulate in Mosul and taken at least 48 people hostage.

The conflict between ISIL and the the Kurds stretches through Syria and Iraq and has been ongoing since the group first appeared.

Their animosity towards the PKK and PYD - whom they also fought in Syria - also stems from the Kurdish groups’ socialist and secularist stances.

Their contempt for the PKK, whom they deem 'apostates' has been made very clear:

Islamic State Media, with over 10,000 followers has provided users with up to the minute updates on ISIL’s progress in Syria and Iraq.

Twitters photos have arrange from innocuous photos of cakes (ISIL in Raqqah celebrating the conquest of Mosul), children (wielding a Kalashnikov) cats (a cat next to a Kalashnikov with the caption:“a mujahid cat!”) to extremely grizzly photos of dead victims of the group.

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/476637593023840256

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/476638509860917248

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/476638232114126848

The world cup has also entered into the fray with supporters using the #worldcup hashtag coupled with #isis to accrue more views and followers

https://twitter.com/ANSAR_DWLA_IRAQ/status/477329368956424192

https://twitter.com/ANSAR_DWLA_IRAQ/status/477321446025199616

Much of the ISIL media focuses on the apparent safety and security of Mosul, post-takeover.

Videos show grateful inhabitants expressing their joy at being liberated by ISIL:

Primarily the focus from @Dawla_NewsMedia has been on detailing ISIL’s military victories with a stream of triumphalist photos of ISIL fighters brandish flags and weaponry:

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/476690918863818754

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/476685617448112129

The indentity of the Tweets is obviously hard to verify.

@AL3gneg claims to be a "journalist" and "supporter" of ISIL.

@Dawla_NewsMedia has hinted that he may be based in Europe.

In spite of his announcement, the Islamic State Media Twitter account appeared to still be open on Friday, although the photo had changed and the account set to ‘Private’, stopping any new followers.

However, he has continued to rail, in English and Turkish (using google translate) against Kurds, prompting some colourful responses:

https://twitter.com/Dawla_NewsMedia/status/477252849018368000