Not Your Typical Social Media Influencer: Exploring the Who, What, and Where of Islamic State Online Propaganda

In this research article, we examined who, how, and in what ways Islamic State magazines are being shared online. We used Babel Street software (an open source intelligence company) and data analytics to collect publicly available information from 27 platforms using 12 magazines as the keywords. Our data revealed accounts sharing the most content to be discussing the topic from a neutral standpoint. Most (53%) discussions were intended to spread news or share academic resources (28%) about the content provided in the 12 Islamic State magazines. Approximately 6% of the 433 discussions, however, were intended to recruit for the Islamic State with 2% shared to brag to an opposing audience. Research and policy implications are discussed.