Extremist Content Online:
Another Pro-ISIS Channel Found on YouTube
White Supremacist Telegram Channel
Shares Instructions for Making TATP Explosives
(New York, N.Y.) - The Counter Extremism
Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to
exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers
and incite violence. This week, a pro-ISIS account that linked to
propaganda appeared on YouTube and an unofficial media group that
supports the terror group released a video titled, “The Severity of
the Caliphate” on multiple websites. Lastly, instructions for making
TATP (triacetone triperoxide) explosives were shared on a white
supremacist Telegram channel.
Pro-ISIS YouTube Channel Located with Links To ISIS
Content on Other Platforms
CEP researchers located a pro-ISIS YouTube channel with links to
over a dozen ISIS videos on another website, as well as ISIS
propaganda on archived JustPaste.It pages. The YouTube channel, titled
“Islamic State,” included a stylized photo of the group’s leader, Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi, as their icon, and had a banner image that included
an ISIS flag.
“In July, CEP flagged that ISIS was finding ways to deliberately
avoid obvious
markers for automatic removal on YouTube. This time around, the
pro-ISIS channel identified should have been more obvious to any
filter, given its brazen glorification of Baghdadi and role as a
repository for additional propaganda,” said CEP researcher Joshua
Fisher-Birch.
The channel was created on August 24, 2019 and had 10 subscribers
on August 29. The single video uploaded on the account, an
approximately two-minute video of a dying alleged ISIS fighter
describing paradise, had 20 views as of August 29, 2019. The channel
linked to streaming and downloadable ISIS propaganda videos on a
website on the .cf domain.
Pro-ISIS YouTube channel with a
stylized photo of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Unofficial ISIS Video Released on Multiple
Websites
On August 24, a pro-ISIS media group released a video titled “The
Severity of the Caliphate” on multiple websites. The video featured
previously released footage from official ISIS videos that include
dozens of executions by immolations and shootings, as well as
executions committed by child soldiers. There was also footage of
abuses allegedly committed by Iraqi, Syrian, and Egyptian government
security forces. The video claimed that these abuses merited ISIS’s
“severity.” In addition to Telegram, the video was uploaded to at
least 11 websites: Vidio, tune.pk, the Internet Archive, file.fm,
mail.ru, Dailymotion, Amazon Drive, top4top, Dropbox, Mediafire, and
mega.nz. Approximately five days later, the video was still available
on 7 websites: Vidio, tune.pk, mail.ru, Amazon Drive, file.fm,
top4top, and mega.nz.
Pro-ISIS video “The Severity of the
Caliphate,” which included extensive footage from official ISIS
videos, on Amazon Drive, approximately five days after it was
uploaded.
Instructions for Making TATP Explosives Shared on White
Supremacist Telegram Channel
On Tuesday, August 27, instructions for making the homemade
explosive TATP were shared by a white supremacist Telegram channel
that has previously advocated for the use of violence. The channel had
over 1,400 subscribers on August 29. In addition to the recipe for
making TATP along with safety tips, there were also instructions for
making explosive devices. The channel posted screenshots from
Amazon.com of chemicals and components that can be used in explosive
devices. TATP has previously been used by ISIS elements in several
terrorist attacks in the West, including the 2015 Paris Attack, the
2016 Brussels Airport Attack, and the 2017 Manchester Arena Bombing.
In March 2018, a Beaver Dam, Wisconsin man was killed when homemade
explosives in his apartment detonated. In the following investigation,
law enforcement agents located
TATP and white supremacist literature in the deceased’s dwelling.
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