ISIS ‘Piggyback’ on Manchester United, Comedy Central and Taylor Swift Hashtags

While US comedian Chris Hardwick’s late night game show @Midnight often successfully creates trending content as part of its ‘Hashtag Wars’ round, last night an unusual new contributor started getting in on the Twitter action - ISIS.

The concept of the simple game is to get contestants and Twitter users to come up with humorous responses to a theme, which last night was #ToughGuyRomComs - an amalgamation of action films and romantic comedies - and the hashtag soon went viral.

Legally Bond #ToughGuyRomComspic.twitter.com/beAY30oeGL

— ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ (@tumour) January 22, 2015

Even Sony Pictures entered the fray with a tweet:

Friends with Bench Pressing #ToughGuyRomComs

— Sony Pictures UK (@SonyPicturesUK) January 22, 2015

However, for Islamic State supporters, the trend was simply another opportunity to attract attention and promote their Jihad in Syria and Iraq. ISIS Twitter accounts began using the hashtag whilst tweeting one of their most recent propaganda videos.

The video is produced by its al-Hayat media wing, infamous for making high budget propaganda to try and recruit Western jihadis, and it shows an ISIS operative urging “Russian-speaking Muslims” to join ISIS in the Middle East.

{A MASSAGE  } ABU MUHAMMAD AR RUS >>>>>>https://t.co/N0UBKAfcTOأسألك بالله تنشر هذا المقطع - #ToughGuyRomComs#الدولة_الإسلامية#ISIS

— مجننهم (@khilafah171) January 22, 2015

In a brazen attempt to hijack the popular hashtag several pro-ISIS accounts tweeted the footage using it as it was trending last night, while others used it to take a public swipe at Saudi Arabia:

#Saudi Woman Beheaded in Public http://t.co/jsYUDJ17Al#ToughGuyRomComs#AFCON2015#ISIS#Kobane#China#ExplainThe90sIn4Words#AFCCup#Iran

— Iraq_Syria (@Iraq_Syria_News) January 22, 2015

According to Charlie Winter, a researcher for the anti-radicalisation thinktank the Quilliam Foundation, ISIS often “piggyback” on popular hashtags to increase their online presence: “This is something that is done by Islamic State supporters wherever they are. It is part of a strategy of flooding the world with as much coverage of Islamic State as possible,” Winter said.

ISIS have previously used social media coverage about the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson to urge violent unrest in the U.S. However it appears ISIS activists do not limit their activities to political trends on social media, having also hijacked hashtags relating to the National Basketball League’s (NBA) draft, and transfer speculation surrounding football club Manchester United (MUFC), to spread their message.

Do u want another disastrous finish for your army?! #USAhttp://t.co/zHu3wCsnAz#ISIS#Iraq#CalamityWillBefallUS#NBADraft#mssen#MUFC"

— ابوعمار الجزيري (@asd233121) June 27, 2014

ISIS activists have also used pop culture events to promote their cause such as the launch of the iOS8 iPhone, the release date of Taylor Swift’s album 1989, the trailer for the latest Star Wars film, and sporting events like the Manchester football derby.

“Central to their media strategy is trying to appear ubiquitous, their use of popular hashtags is not to do with recruitment efforts necessarily,” Winter said. “Obviously someone who buys a Taylor Swift album is not exactly a prime candidate for recruitment to jihadism.”

“It is all part of their efforts to intimidate - they want to portray themselves as this big menace to the West, bigger than they actually are. They want to make it appear as though they control the media,” he added.

While some of these Twitter trends have been global others, like the English Premier League football matches, have been more regional, suggesting that pro-ISIS accounts using them are based in the region where the hashtag is popular.

Last month, UK broadcaster Channel 4 publicly identified one of the most popular ISIS Twitter propaganda activists, as Shami Witness - a businessman based in Mumbai who had never travelled to Syria or Iraq.