Amid the closure of several jihadist internet forums, it appears Al-Qaeda enthusiasts may be turning more to secondary online outlets to distribute major video releases and interact online.
In a previous post last Friday, I mentioned how the As-Sahab media production house established a YouTube channel for the much awaited and delayed release of a film celebrating the 7th anniversary of September 11th. The other day, I came across another channel created for Al-Qaeda in Iraq's Al-Furqan media group and its recent release celebrating the second anniversary of the ‘establishment’ of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq. Note, the use of YouTube is nothing new among AQ enthusiasts, but these incidents coincide with increased restrictions being placed upon AQ's online media infrastructure.
While mainstream video sharing sites like Youtube may provide an alternative means for dissemination to internet forums, the interaction amongst jihadist forum members, as well as the utility of these sites as an alternative news source, has also perhaps been hampered by the closure of forums like Al-Ekhlaas.
Today, this issue was actually the topic of an interesting discussion in one of the other forums that remains online. One user initiated a discussion entitled, “Where will the members of the Al-Ekhlaas, Al-Boraq, and Al-Firdaws forums meet?”. These are sites that have been shutdown for the past couple weeks.
Respondents offered a number of ideas. This included demanding that other forums – currently operational – allow for new temporary memberships be allowed for those left stranded by the closures. Others suggest going to other, less popular, jihadist forums, as well as those that are not necessarily jihadist in nature to disseminate materials (i.e. AlJazeera Talk, which actually already has a noticeable jihadist presence).
So while some of the more popular forums can be shutdown, many of these individuals are active on a number of discussion forums, including those with a lower profile. Thus, secondary sites are often utilized to ‘regroup’, communicate, and formulate strategies until the more popular sites are resurrected.
