The weaponization of social media platforms by extremist groups to radicalize, recruit new members, and plan violent attacks against innocent people around the world is a cancer that continues to grow unabated. Pro-ISIS Twitter accounts have amplified and repeated ISIS’s messages of hate and terror. The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) has profiled 48 of the most prolific ISIS recruiters, propagandists, and inciters to violence operating on Twitter. While extremists misuse many platforms, CEP’s has focused on Twitter because it is the ‘gateway drug’ where vulnerable individuals, usually young people, are relentlessly exposed to propaganda and radical content.
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Recruiter
Neil Prakash, a.k.a. Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, is an Australian propagandist, recruiter, and facilitator for ISIS, reportedly the most senior Australian fighting with the terrorist group. ISIS published a guidebook listing Prakash as number 4 out of 19 recommended facilitators bringing foreigners to ISIS-held territory. Through ISIS produced videos and via Twitter, Prakash has recruited Muslims to ISIS-held territory and urged them to commit violent acts of terror domestically. -
Recruiter
Raphael Hostey, known as both the social media personality Abu Qaqa al-Britani and rapper alias Abu Qaqa Afro, is a British propagandist, recruiter, and facilitator for ISIS. According to London’s Daily Mail, Hostey is part of a five-person ISIS online recruiting team. Hostey’s techniques include theological justifications for ISIS activity, rapping, appeals to video gamers and even flirting with potential female recruits. -
Inciter to Violence
Sally Jones is a British-born recruiter and propagandist for ISIS. Jones has been sanctioned by the United Nations as an agent operating on behalf of a terrorist organization and has been designated by the United States and the United Kingdom. Still, Jones has continued to operate on Twitter, threatening the lives of U.S. veterans Robert O’Neill and Dillard Johnson, among others. -
Inciter to Violence
Abu Suleymaan, a.k.a. @WilayatNinawa, is a Twitter propagandist for ISIS. Suleymaan is an associate of Anjem Choudary, an extremist British preacher and ISIS sympathizer whom authorities have connected to hundreds of British Muslims arrested in terrorism-related cases. Suleymaan has also tweeted about his support for notorious Islamists such as Osama bin Laden, Abu Bakr Muhammad, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Suleymaan refers to suicide attacks as “martyrdom operation[s].” -
Propagandist
Abu Samir Almaghrebi, a.k.a. @F1ollow_the_Haq, is an ISIS propagandist on Twitter. He posts messages such as “Fight the kuffar [nonbelievers],” promotes jihad, and retweets other pro-ISIS Twitter users. Almaghrebi regularly encourages his followers to join ISIS’s jihad out of a religious obligation. -
Propagandist
EPIC, a.k.a. @EPICcloser, is a Twitter cheerleader for ISIS who appears to be UK based. He regularly promotes the terror group’s exploits and propaganda. EPIC’s Twitter feed is a frequent source of news from ISIS’s area of operations. EPIC also pronounced himself “so happy” over the January killings at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. “Kill them all. Don’t leave a single soul.
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- Abu Bakr al-Iraqi
- Abu Haleema
- Abu Hurayra al-Hindi
- Abu Izzadeen
- Abu Luqmaan Almani
- Abu Mutassim
- Abu Usama al-Gharib
- Abuqital Ibn Tauheed
- Ali al-Foutawi
- Amal (Bint Rose)
- Battle of Fallujah
- Bint Crackers
- Bint Stranger
- Global Tawheed
- Hass Coast
- Ibrahim Anderson
- IS FACT
- ISSyria
- Just Muhajirah
- Khoder Soueid
- Mad Mullah
- Oum Haarith
- Persian Witness
- Preeing Mostly
- Rawdah Abdisalaam a.k.a. Umm Waqqas
- The Cheerful Fighting
- Umm Jihad
- Umm Muslim
- Umm Radwa
- Ghareeba
- Kashmiri Tweep
- Umm Usamah
- Abu Esaa
- Ana Eashaa
- Mizanur Rahman
- Nasser Muthana
- Umm UbaydullahSomali
- Hallie Sheikh
- Abu Jandal
- Mujahid Miski
- Junaid Hussain