From message boards to TikTok: two decades of al-Qaeda’s use of the internet

September 13, 2024

By: Moustafa Ayad

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The Islamic State has come into focus in recent months, and its website has been targeted and scrutinized. because of inspired projects that have failed all over the world and coordinated attacks in central Europe. In comparison, much less attention has been paid to al-Qaeda’s more successful online environment. 20 years on the open weband has a website older than the 9/11 attacks.

On the anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, and 10 months have been removed from TikTok and X. [formerly Twitter] Go for it he resurrected the twenty-year-old Osama bin Laden screedISD investigators also delve into al-Qaeda’s digital environment, viz often seen compared to the Islamic State as it suggested, but it has survived waves of bans and takedowns only to continue to reinvent itself and reinvent itself online for the past 20 summers. At their peak, about 16 years ago, terrorism experts realized that al-Qaeda used 5,600 websites, with 900 new sites, blogs, and forums that pop up every year.

Although al-Qaeda’s online success is long gone, and millions of dollars have been spent to undermine the appeal and impact of al-Qaeda’s digital operations, its story of living in the shadow of the Islamic State and the rise of social media. platforms, provides an accurate lesson on the impact of terrorist use of the internet – they keep coming back.

It is true that al-Qaeda is a shell of its former selfbut it is also true that it is reorganizing itself in Afghanistanholding its and expanding Sahelturning to it once the most deadly affiliate In the Arabian Peninsula with the aim of influencing the attacks of the West, and relying on the success of al-Shabaab both offline and online to facilitate engagement; all the while escaping the same scrutiny applied to Islamic State digital assets.

In the shadow of the (online) Islamic State

The most recent example of this energy occurred in June 2024, when the action is coordinated by Europol and the justice departments of the governments of Spain, the United States, Finland, the Netherlands, and Germany took down important websites linked to the Islamic State. The punishment was so decisive that even their ‘dark web’ mirror went dark. It was a quick and swift series of takeovers from which the Islamic State will not recover, despite the efforts of the group’s supporters to demonstrate and promote their assets on the website. darkness before it is also watched by both governments. hacking group known for taking down websites run by terrorists.

Islamic State channels linked to these sites on Telegram were similarly hacked before reverting to messaging. Recently it is one of the largest Islamic State sites on the Internet, containing 2.1 terabytes of contentit was taken off-line, too, dealing with the decisive action on the group’s open online presence. Of course this was countered by the many archive channels that have been published in all messaging systems that provide supporters with information on current and legacy issues related to IS.

Unscathed in this latest government action were the main websites of al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al-Qaeda archives and other al-Qaeda forums. These were groups and sites that had long existed online, including the takeover of a short-lived “X knock-off”, called Chirpwire, which hosted a range of al-Qaeda supporters and outlets. works in several languages. The platform has been slow to update,​​​​​​​​ and is believed to be full of kinks, yet remains a spigot of propaganda linked to al-Qaeda.

It is true that websites, in the last two decades since the 9/11 attacks in the US, have, in fact, been targeted by direct actions by governments but have managed to survive as websites that are not newly created online or recently broken. . To ask the question, what is the year of the year, the policy of reducing the connection that affects their network environment, how many ants?

Attack data give feedback Attacks linked to al-Qaeda in the west have decreased, but attacks in sub-Saharan Africa and in other places they persist. This can be attributed to another part of the al-Qaeda group ‘s change in strategybut also leadership gaps resulting from ongoing pressure from governments after 9/11, which reflects the arrests and executions aimed at key people and workers.

Al-Qaeda’s online presence is also overshadowed by the Islamic State’s online presence. Statistics using the website analysis platform SimilarWeb show that one of the main forums of the Islamic State attracts 19,000+ unique visitors per month against the group’s main group al- Qaeda with 1,800+ unique visitors per month. Similarly, the same Islamic State forum has more Western visitors compared to its al-Qaeda counterpart, whose visitors come mostly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. .

In another head-to-head comparison, Raud’s Islamic State website had 83,300+ unique visitors per month over the summer before it was taken offline by a joint action of Europol. Meanwhile, Al-Shabaab’s website, while not exactly the same, had 941 unique visitors per month during the same period. These data points confirm that even in the internecine war for Salafi-jihadist eyeballs, al-Qaeda is losing to the Islamic State, which shows a picture of a larger and more oppressive goal than governments.

Much of this strength can be attributed to a steady stream of attacks, plots, and arrests linked to the Islamic State, not to mention the recent history of some 40,000 foreign fighters who have they entered into a temporary ‘caliphate’ of the group. The Islamic State is similarly supported by numerous propaganda arms directly linked to its members and illegal support groups that have sprung up over the past 10 years. The ISD tracked 74 illegal propaganda groups supporting the Islamic State during that time, some of them inactive, some of them awakened from a long sleep, and some of them newly born on the platform. said.

AQ determination online

Although some of these forces exist in al-Qaeda’s digital ecosystem, the group has managed to keep its online presence stable, a boomer-like insistence on using the internet in a top-down fashion. Meanwhile, the Islamic State has found its status as a terrorist organization, and an early adopter of technology. Much of this can be attributed to unofficial sites and groups that have diverted the Islamic State’s public relations platform to new platforms untouched by al-Qaeda’s allies, such as the interim Islamic State. wiliyahor province, which existed on a decentralized platform known as Aminoor a combination of alt-tech X knockoffs Gettr.

Real governments after October 7 had to deal with it, that’s how foreign-based terrorist organizations were able to gain access to the internet, either through direct presence, the proxy and stores, or a clear support community. their content. In an increasingly cyber-threat environment, al-Qaeda is no longer the only target as it was after 9/11, with various groups able to spread across the platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube. such as messaging apps like Telegram, Discord, RocketChat, Threema, and Element.

Al-Qaeda has similar publicity on this platform and competes for eyes and clicks on the same Salafi-jihadist site as the Islamic State, or many other groups. Its message has been diluted in the current environment. Even the effort to restore its importance in these forums seems to have been captured by supporters of the network or important sites of the past: 60+ “Inspire Tweets” have been pushed since June, calling for attacks in the countries of the west; and return to its “open-source jihad” principles Inspire Magazine. An ongoing investigation by the ISD shows evidence of behavior being reinforced by al-Qaeda supporters on Facebook to publish content that is exactly the same as their Telegram channels, and pages dedicated to al-Qaeda supporters. -Qaeda with more than 5,600 followers, showing that they are thriving online. By 2022, The ISD found that al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, was clearly active on Facebook.promoting popular content, and presenting content in various East African languages.

Looking ahead

If anything, even the sad anniversary of September 11th, 20+ years removed, proves that the challenge of the use of the internet by al-Qaeda is a long-term problem that will not end anytime soon. . The ability of al-Qaeda’s propaganda and support community to adapt is part of the real story of post-9/11, and a valid example. Although the last 20 years have had the success of offline strategies against al-Qaeda, either through targeted killings or arrests, the next time – through the re-establishment of training camps and a more aggressive approach in the Sahel – may test that global success. Al-Qaeda’s online presence follows a similar pattern, where much of its spread has been limited by the focus on its digital domain by its opponents, which has resulted in an ineffective mechanism of online. However, in contrast to the offline success of the joint terrorist operation, the group has been able to test the limits of prevention as a strategy by adopting new platforms and messaging systems.

Strategic efforts to reduce al-Qaeda’s online influence nearly two decades into the future, create the need to find new ways to destroy and degrade the group even further. There is no doubt that the internet has proven fertile ground for al-Qaeda, but it does not have to continue to be so; if anything has been learned from the past 20 years of their presence on the open web.