For those who have been following the media of the Islamic State / IS for the last ten years or so, Twitter.com again was in 2020 one of its favored platforms used to disseminate its media. In many instances during 2020 the Islamic State boasted about the inability of Twitter.com to stop them.

Results from few searches during different hours on the first and second days of 2021 show that Twitter.com will be facing the same major challenge when dealing with the media of the Islamic State and those pushing it.

Not all of the Islamic State efforts are on the Dark Web or the Deep Dark Web, but are rampant right on the Surface Internet or Surface Web; i.e: the web that is available to everyone in the open using the biggest platforms around.

Since day one, the Islamic State in its current form, or any other one from its past, it never forsaken the Surface Web. Yes, they operate some secret chat rooms on Telegram or somewhere else, but, the group never stopped putting material in a very easy manner for anyone to be able to see.

(Screen shot of a You Tube Channel on 1/1/2021)

It is hard to get to the desired location on the Dark Web uninvited. Many people also do not do so because they fear the consequences. The Islamic State takes all of this into consideration and that is why they put their material on the everyday web platforms you encounter casually plus they are adamant on teaching their followers and supporters how to cover their traces as well. The Islamic State knows that most people are Not on the Dark Web or the Deep Dark Web, and therefore designates a huge part of its efforts to reach people on the most common platforms one encounters daily. Twitter.com is an example of a platform that the Islamic State uses to publish its news and to direct traffic into its other media platforms and those of its trusted supporters.

During the year 2020 pro Islamic State Twitter accounts relentlessly appeared daily. An avalanche of new, old and stolen accounts streamed non-stop material and directed people to more Islamic State produced material.

Here are some notes regarding the Islamic State‘s presence on Twitter.com in 2020 and what to expect in 2021.

1- On the first day of 2021, when searching Twitter.com using the key word ” Islamic State” in ‘Arabic الدوله الاسلاميه , the top result is none other than a twitter account named : Akhbar al-Dawlah al-Islamiyah / The News of The Islamic State / أخبار الدولة الإسلامية . The tweet remained the top result for more than a day. It was published in 2020 and carried on to 2021 an indication of things to come.

2- On the second day of 2021 the same Twitter account Akhbar al-Dawlah al-Islamiyah / أخبار الدولة الإسلامية is still the top tweet that appears when searching using the word : al-Dawlah al-Islamiyah / الدوله الإسلاميه in Arabic. Some of these tweets gets thousands of views already and of course links to more Islamic State’s content.

3- On the second day of 2021 the Twitter account Akhbar al-Dawlah al-Islamiyah / أخبار الدولة الإسلامية has dominated the top spot when searching the key word the Islamic State / al-Dawlah al-Islamiyah / الدوله الاسلاميه . It has seven of the first ten tweets. At one moment on 1/1/2021 the same account had about 20 consecutive tweets uninterrupted. They flooded the platform through different account at that moment in the afternoon. The Islamic State and / or / its supporters had many accounts posting at the same time at that moment. Some of the tweets were posted few days ago by now.

4- On 1/1/2021 some of the Twitter accounts linked to the Islamic State and its supporters continued with their habit of posting on the platforms of terrorism specialists.

Wassim Nasr is the terrorism specialist for France 24. The Islamic State linked him through a Tweet to its latest issue of its weekly newspaper al-Naba’/ النبأ

The Islamic State and / or / its supporters have been going directly to those in the media speaking about them and link them to their original sources without any intermediaries. They have done this in 2020 on numerous occasion and obviously are intent on continuing to do so.

6- Some of the Twitter accounts flooding the platform started putting links to other website linked to the Islamic State. Some of them tweeted only once with new accounts established on Twitter.com in 2021.

8- Some accounts advertised for the links they contain. They wrote in ‘Arabic that there is a link within the Twitter profile of the Twitter account that is posting this. The hashtags are of course what is popular during this time of the year.

8- You will see the link right away in the Twitter account’s profile.

9- When you follow the link you just found embedded in the Tweet mentioned above, you are led to a Dark Web site, or a site on the Surface web where you can download with ease the latest issue of al-Naba’ Newspaper or listen / download the latest speech by Abu Hamza al-Qurashi the current official spokesperson of the Islamic State IS.

10- Or you get to link to the new photo journal the Islamic State started releasing . And if you have any questions, there is a link to the Telegram account.

11- The hashtags in the Tweets by the Islamic State / and / or / its supporters ARE the most popular ones at this time of the Tweet in the Middle East. The hashtags used in the Tweet bellow, for example, has a Syrian Director, Hatem Ali, who just died, Qasem Sulaymani, Corona and 2021, to mention a few.

12- Some of the above mentioned Twitter accounts used also started posting on accounts that has millions of followers on the first day of 2021. The Islamic State and its supporters use this method frequently reaching millions through a single tweet posted a very popular platform. Like Turki Alalshikh / تركي الشيخ , a Saudi Royal Court Advisor with 4 Million followers, and

9- All of the pro Islamic State tweets remained on Twitter.com for hours. Some for more than a day or days.

To be continued.