The Islamic State\u2019s online warriors are still posting. It\u2019s been almost a decade since the group lost the Battle of Raqqa and saw its IRL territorial ambitions thwarted. Unable to hold territory in the real world, the group renewed its focus on posting and has started using AI to resurrect dead leaders. And, because social media platforms have gutted their content moderation operations, the terror group\u2019s strategy is working.The Islamic State\u2019s online success is detailed in a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), an independent research institution that studies extremist movements. For the study, researchers tracked IS accounts on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Element, and SimpleX. It found videos posted in Discord channels dedicated to video games and tracked how the groups have modified old content to fit on new platforms.<\/p>\n
Like many others posting online in 2026, the Islamic State has found success by talking about the Epstein Files, using AI to create new videos of dead leaders, and has begun taking its message to video games like Minecraft and Roblox.\u201cThey are very adept at exploiting platforms [and] spreading messages,\u201d Moustafa Ayad, a researcher at ISD and author of this study, told 404 Media. He noted that the group has been active online for 10 years and that part of their success is a willingness to experiment.\u00a0Ayad said that Facebook remains a central hub for IS, despite its push into new spaces. His research discovered 350 IS accounts on Facebook that generated tens of thousands of views. One video of an IS fighter talking to camera had more than 77,000 views and 101 shares. The Islamic State branding is blurred to defeat the site\u2019s auto-moderation.According to Ayad, Islamic State\u2019s engagement numbers are up across the board. \u201cTrust and safety teams have been rolled back over the past few years\u2026a lot of this is outsourced to third party companies who aren\u2019t necessarily experts in understanding if a piece of content came from the Islamic State,\u201d he said.Social media companies like Meta used the election of Donald Trump as an excuse to cut back on moderating their platforms. Meta said this would mean \u201cmore speech and fewer mistakes.\u201d No policies around terrorism have changed, but broadly speaking the largest social media platforms are doing a worse job at moderating their sites. In practice it\u2019s turned Facebook into a place where a group like the Islamic State can spread its message without falling afoul of content moderation teams. Even three years ago, IS influencers wouldn\u2019t have lasted long on the site.This rollback of moderation has coincided with a spike in views for IS accounts, the report argues. \u201cIndividual IS \u2018influencer\u2019 accounts are experiencing higher engagement rates on terrorist content than previously recorded by ISD analysts,\u201d the report said. \u201cIt is unclear if this uptick is due to moderation gaps, platform mechanics or specific tactical adjustments by IS supporters and support outlets and groups.\u201d\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about content where there\u2019s a gray area,\u201d Ayad said. \u201cIt\u2019s very clearly branded Islamic State\u2026supports violence, supports the killing of minorities, the celebration of bombings, the pillaging that is happening in Sub Saharan Africa.\u201d\u00a0Something new is the adoption of AI systems to resurrect dead leaders. Ayad described a video where the deceased IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered speeches again.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a sanctioned version of using AI for a \u2018beloved leader\u2019 or taking him out of context and placing him in a meadow, surrounded by beautiful flowers, paying homage,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of these circles are strange.\u201dAnother popular topic in current IS propaganda is the Epstein Files. According to Ayad, an AI-generated photo of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton canoodling in bed makes frequent appearances on IS accounts across platforms. The picture is, supposedly, pulled from the Epstein files but it\u2019s a popular fake. Ayad said Epstein has been a perfect springboard for IS to talk about \u201cwestern degeneracy.\u201dAyad has also seen Islamic State videos created using Minecraft and Roblox. \u201cThey\u2019re creating these virtual worlds that mimic the Islamic State\u2019s caliphate, literally calling it something like Wilayat Roblox [the Province of Roblox] \u2026 and they\u2019ll completely mimic the video styles of well-known Islamic State Videos using Roblox characters. This includes faux executions. It includes Arabic and English voiceover in the same cadence as an Islamic State narrator.\u201dOne of the most famous pieces of Islamic State propaganda is a film called Flames of War: The Fighting Has Just Begun. Ayad has seen multiple 1 for 1 recreations of the film using Roblox characters. \u201cThey\u2019re often tied to Discords where a number of users are creating this content. They always claim it\u2019s fake or a LARP,\u201d he said. \u201cTo see them in this video game skin is odd, to say the least.\u201dWhat drives an Islamic State poster? \u201cIt\u2019s done very much for the love of the game,\u201d Ayad said. It\u2019s done for the fact that, as a user, \u2018I might not be able to participate in physical Jihad but I can participate in electronic Jihad.\u2019\u201dKeeping Islamic State off of major social media platforms is a constant battle, but one frustrating finding of the study is that the tactics for avoiding moderation haven\u2019t changed much.\u00a0\u201cTechniques included the use of alternative news outlets to rebrand IS news, as well as purchasing or hijacking channels with high subscriber bases. These were then repurposed to share IS content. IS supporters, groups and outlets also use coded language: they sometimes referred to the group as \u2018black hole\u2019 or the \u2018righteous few\u2019 to confound moderation efforts.\u201dTo fight back against IS online, Ayad said that platforms needed to be better at coordination. Often a group is kicked off of Facebook so it moves to TikTok or another platform where it flourishes. He also said that all the companies need to be more transparent about who they\u2019re kicking off their platform and why.\u00a0\u201cEuropol does these big takedown days and they\u2019re effective to a certain degree but the fact of the matter is that the Islamic State is spread across an expanse of different platforms and messaging applications,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re able to shift operations to another place, wait it out and regenerate on that platform\u2026it\u2019s not like you\u2019re dealing with an average user, you\u2019re dealing with a user that\u2019s determined to spread their ideology and exploit your platform to their own ends.\u201dAnd then there\u2019s the old problem of language. \u201cThere needs to just be better moderation of under-moderated languages,\u201d Ayad said. Facebook and other platforms have long been terrible at moderating non-English languages. A lot of rancid content online gets a pass because it\u2019s in Arabic or Bengali.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"