Archive as a Platform for Storing and Disseminating the Propaganda Materials
of Al Qaeda and its Supporters
In recent years, social networks have concentrated efforts on removing incitement content following international criticism that they have become an area of activity and a platform for terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. However, it is apparent that terrorist organizations are finding ways to overcome the difficulties facing them and are succeeding in outwitting sharing platforms, as recently reflected by the American sharing site, Archive.
In March 2019, propaganda materials related to Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other terrorist organizations were uploaded to the Archive site, including a series of videos, the transcription of videos into Arabic and audio clips (102 incitement materials). In order to pre 1 vent the site’s management from identifying them as incitement materials, the terrorist operatives chose to give them a misleading headline, taken from the world of nature: “Flamingo Bird Sounds”. Indeed, the opening film in the series focuses on flamingo bird sounds but it is followed by the organization’s other videos as well as the rest of the incitement materials.
This article is part of the RED-Alert project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation Programme under grant agreement No 740688.
