Twitter used to be a cool place to share your succinct thoughts. Now al-Shabab, the vicious Somali allies of al-Qaida, is using it as a propaganda venue.
al-Shabab began tweeting in English on Wednesday using the handle @HSMPress. (HSM is the English acronym of al-Shabab’s more grandiose name, the Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen.) Jack Dorsey and company have yet to verify the account, but it sounds fairly authentic: one Wednesday tweet said the terrorists “welcomed” the surrender of seven Somali government soldiers after they “proclaim[ed] repentance from apostasy.”
The terrorist group is starting out slow, with just six tweets so far on opening day. It’s an oddly subdued Twitter feed: a boast about a “3-hour battle” with African peacekeepers ended with a meek declaration that al-Shabab caused “some #Amisom casualties+base burnt.” #Fail.
Joining Twitter looks like part of a broader Shabab rebrand. The group decided this week to rename itself “Imaarah Islamiyah,” or the Islamic Authority, because of… age anxiety. “Al-Shabab means ‘youth’ but many of us, including the leaders, are very old,” said spokesman Mukhtaar Robow.
So now old terrorists feel the need to use Twitter. It wasn’t long ago that al-Shabab blazed something of an online trail for terrorist groups. Its American adherent, Omar Hammami, used to upload jihadist freestyles onto internet mixtapes. Now al-Shabab’s joining Twitter half a year after the Taliban launched its own English language feed.
Not that @HSMPress is generating much buzz. Journalists, terrorism researchers and aid workers make up the lion’s share of its early followers, not eager Muslim youth. And Shabab’s adversaries are doing a much better job with Twitter, using it to warn Somalis of upcoming offensives. More #fail.
Source: www.wired.com
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