The videos have a high production quality and incorporate montages, slow motion scenes, and are often accompanied by a short dialogue.
The particular videos that IS often post include executions of "enemies of the Caliphate," which often consist of westerners or Jordanian nationals.
Jihadi John is notorious for executing many US, UK, and Japanese citizens such as Steven Sotloff, David Haines, and Alan Henning.
To augment their online presence and popularity, the organization encourages their followers to use a plethora of Arabic hashtags, which translate to #theFridayofSupportingISIS, and #CalamityWillBefalltheUS.
The organization also uses Telegram as an anchor platform to connect with their user base when their other accounts are banned on Twitter and Facebook.
It has been documented that IS gunmen have used this app to maintain contact with IS leaders in Raqqa days before terror attacks in Turkey, Berlin, and St. Petersburg.
[16] In April 2019 a video was uploaded in which they urged lone wolves to attempt to attack during the Holy Week in Sevilla and Málaga.
With the option to lock images, the website allows anonymous users to send and receive content without registration.
For this reason, IS members have shared photos of countless murders, executions, and battlegrounds onto the app to be disseminated to other applications.
[23] IS social media offices relied most heavily on Manbar.me to distribute propaganda photos of battles and city raids.
Additionally, it allowed users to see and monitor hashtags, tweets, images, videos, and comments that were posted on their accounts.
Lewis notes that the attacks in Paris represent a 'propaganda of the deed', a method developed by 19th century anarchists in Europe.
The November 2015 IS attacks were perpetrated without prior warning, largely because the operatives met face-to-face and used other non-digital means of communication.
IS has been forced to look for a new online safe haven; thus, it posts a variety of content on the Dark Web as well as their own internally generated platforms.
Without the intervention of corporate actors or government entities, IS has been able to freely spread their messages on their own platforms and websites.
[9] IS social media posts have mobilized ordinary citizens throughout the world and other radical jihadists groups to act upon their digitized demands.
For this reason, ISIS strategically places their polished messages on these platforms to attract potential new members from an early age.
[26] Many “call for action” verbs that have a positive connotation have also been utilized to establish feelings of justification towards any pertinent violence.
A 2022 study found that IS online "propaganda conveying the material, spiritual, and social benefits of joining ISIS increased online support for the group, while content displaying brutal violence decreased endorsement of ISIS across a wide range of videos.
[29] “The Redirect Method uses Adwords targeting tools and curated YouTube videos uploaded by people all around the world to confront online radicalization.
This open methodology was developed from interviews with ISIS defectors, respects users’ privacy and can be deployed to tackle other types of violent recruiting discourses online.”[30] By using this tactic, Jigsaw catches slogans that manifest any positive IS sentiments, like Baqiyah wa Tatamadad ('Remaining and Expanding'), and Al Dawla Al Islameyah, which includes al-Dawla, a sign of respect.
Lastly, Anonymous declared war against IS in November 2015, attempting to thwart the social media recruitment efforts by targeting IS's communication networks.