‘Media Mujahideen': The visual narratives of ISKP social messaging platforms

Executive summary

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) uses a wealth of visual material to communicate as a group on social messaging platforms, including stickers, gifs, posters and infographics. Visual content constitutes an important tool in the ISKP propaganda arsenal, through which the group conveys information, directives and narratives using a medium which is accessible, emotive and easily shared among its global networks of supporters online.

However, limited analytical work has been conducted to analyse the narratives and purposes of ISKP visual content, which can help understand its operation and effectiveness, as well as inform counter-communications efforts. This investigation analyses an indicative sample of visual materials shared by the ISKP to identify key narratives in the content, provide explanations of their context, and assess their purposes: whether to garner support, cultivate a distinct aesthetic identity and ideology, proliferate a sense of belonging, or inspire group members to conduct attacks. Its findings are based on a qualitative collection and analysis of visual propaganda (in the form of stickers,
gifs, generic images, posters, and infographics) shared by Al-Azaim, ISKP publishing groups, and ISKP-affiliated channels on Telegram and Rocket Chat from 1 January – 31 July 2024.

The main findings from this report are as follows:

• While Al-Azaim and ISKP publishing groups tend to create and share posters and infographics, ISKP-affiliated channels typically use stickers, gifs, and generic images to communicate on Telegram as well as amplify
  ‘official’ propaganda.
• Visual content in the form of stickers, gifs, generic images, posters, and infographics are valued by the group as a tool in amplifying their core messaging. Such materials help to educate ISKP members on the group’s ideology and construct a sense of identity and belonging, as well as promote attacks against the group’s enemies.
• Purposes of visual content include: recruitment and radicalisation of new supporters; strengthening in-group and out-group distinctions by placing blame on a specific ‘Other’ (or enemy); and mobilisation of individuals to carry out violent attacks.
• As well as visual content containing violent themes, ‘softer’ imagery is also used to cultivate a sense of brotherhood/sisterhood and community among supporters, and romanticise a ‘fighter lifestyle’.
• As well as generic imagery, visual material includes country and language-specific content, to appeal to the linguistic backgrounds and contextual sensitivities of specific groups among the ISKP audience.
• Visual materials often incorporate Arabic Islamic terminology and phrases recognisable to supporters, to both signpost the group’s religious focus and unify supporters from different linguistic backgrounds.
• AW observed text-based stickers being used to engage new joiners to channels in private conversation. These serve the purpose of both encouraging new followers to engage in communications, and to potentially invite them into further group activities (including violent action and training).
• Some visual imagery is shared in the form of generic images (i.e. imagery not identifiable as ISKP-affiliated to those unfamiliar with the group’s narratives and ideology, such as representations of fighters on horses, swords and firearms). These are likely used to avoid content moderation or removal.
• The table below summarises the five main narrative themes of visual content shared by ISKP, their corresponding characteristics, and purposes:

Introduction

Violent extremist organisations (VEOs) share visual propaganda online with the principal aim of reaching a broader audience and spreading their ideology. Between 2011-2014, ISIS embraced and exploited the popularity of social media by
sharing its propaganda online. The group’s distribution of content containing IS ideology, battle footage, and activities achieved success in reaching a wider and more global audience, and contributed to the radicalisation, recruitment, and
mobilisation of IS followers.

IS use of the online space has continued to the present day, with the group adapting to and exploiting new online platforms. ISKP is no exception in also leveraging visual mediums for a variety of purposes, as a means of promoting their ideology, strengthening their branding and identity, consolidating their community online and inciting supporters to conduct attacks.
As a province of IS which covers a territory containing several different countries and linguistic backgrounds, ISKP produces visuals which are both country and language-specific, as a way of targeting supporters across the group’s geographies.
It also leverages visuals to communicate without the use of language, to unify the group’s supporters under a similar aesthetic understanding.

Existing literature on the significance and importance of visuals in propaganda mentions that their production and dissemination is used for a range of different strategic purposes, including: to simplify more complicated issues and concepts, and to reach and appeal to a broader audience, where visuals can “serve as an effective means of communicating the group’s narratives,” especially where the group has a global network of supporters who may not share the same language.

Visuals also create and reinforce a sense of collective identity or collective belonging, where visuals are strong drivers of emotion (such as anger, resentment, nostalgia, hope etc.). The emotive impact of visuals means they can also serve as tools for radicalising, recruiting, and mobilising supporters of VEOs by further strengthening ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ identities^1.

For example, in the case of far-right extremism, studies have shown that memes have been used as an important “vector of recruitment and radicalisation”, contributing to mobilisation and, in some cases, assisting the normative process
required for some individuals to carry out attacks. Studies suggest that “prolonged exposure to violent and/or racist beliefs [as depicted in memes] can lead individuals to normalise the content and become gradually more tolerant of violent extremist ideologies.”

An Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) report examined the use of memes by “Salafi-identifying Gen-Z internet users” on mainstream and fringe social media platforms. The report mentioned that within these groups, memes were used to show support for militant groups (such as Hamas) and Salafi-jihadist organisations (such as IS). Although not directly mentioned in the report, this type of content appeals to younger generations and those with greater access to online spaces, due to the accessibility of understanding and sharing visual materials.

Regional VEOs have also stressed the importance of visual propaganda, including as a form of conducting jihad. For example, former Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki^2 produced a book, ‘44 Ways to Wage Jihad’, in which it states that, in
order to support jihad, followers are required to “campaign amongst Muslims to raise awareness regarding [the lies that Western media shares on Muslims]”. Awlaki’s teachings, including ‘44 Ways to Wage Jihad’, are frequently shared in IS and ISKP channels. For this reason, the ‘media mujahideen’, ISKP’s virtual fighting force, are considered to play an important role of producing and disseminating propaganda as a vital contribution to waging global jihad.

This investigation seeks to contribute to the already existing body of literature by providing OSINT-based examples of visual propaganda (in the form of stickers, gifs, generic images, posters, and infographics) shared by ISKP. Analysing the narratives, purpose, and forms of visual propaganda is useful for better understanding ISKP
efforts in recruiting, radicalising, and mobilising its followers.

This investigation analyses:

• The type of visuals used by ISKP in its propaganda, by examining their
  context, narratives, and meanings.
• The purposes behind the dissemination of different forms of visual
  propaganda used by ISKP

1 ‘In-group’ and ‘out-group’ identities refer to distinctions between a collective ‘us’ and an opposing ‘them’. For ISKP, the in-group consists of (selected groups of) Sunni Muslims and IS supporters, while the out-group consists of anyone who is not a Sunni Muslim, or who is not IS-aligned.

2 A U.S.-Yemeni dual citizen and cleric, propagandist, and operative for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).