Eisa Younes Framing and analyzing ISIS through classical management… 297 popular with around 60% accounts choosing that medium to communicate. There were between 500 and 2,000 extremely active accounts, which tweeted in tandem with concentrated bursts. Although the administrators suspended hundreds of such ac-counts, thousands more surfaced. A main issue with suspending such accounts is that suspension can lead to further isolation of the individuals and thus they are lesser ex-posed to social pressures to deradicalize. Following on from the large-scale suspensions of accounts in 2014, the main accounts of ISIS on Twitter are generally “protected” by the operators, permitting only a limited number of people the access to read the tweets. There is high intelligence value to be gained from the ISIS accounts. Relevant and accurate GPS coordinates can be collected from ISIS territories, especially in Iraq and in Syria. The narrative being peddled by ISIS is largely based on a long-established theo-logical foundation, which asserts that only jihadist (extremist) followers of Islam are true Muslims35. Its objective is “a Caliphate upon the prophetic methodology”, where-by all the plans and actions are justified based on carefully chosen and manipulated scriptures that are generally exploited out of context, and bearing specious scholarly interpretation. ISIS has maintained a consistent output in the virtual realms in the last three years, despite claims of its effectiveness being impaired. Taking a conservative estimate, it produces around 100 pieces of new content weekly, with videos playing a critical part in bypassing the language barriers for its supporters. The organization has produced around 2,000 official videos so far, with the figure rising to 6,000 when the wider movement for jihadism is included. Methodology of dissemination online is through the use of a “Swarmcast”, conjur-ing imagery of an interconnected network like a swarm of bees in mid-flight. Such a phenomenon follows the concepts of speed, agility, resilience, and flexibility. These features have enabled the ISIS network to outmaneuver all efforts so far to significant-ly curtail its presence online. Twitter accounts for 40% of the traced traffic of jihadist content online. Such content is also spread regularly through Facebook, Google and YouTube. In terms of access to such content worldwide, specifically the five most pro-lific locations are Turkey, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UK. Some use Twitter for private messaging and for sending covert signals36. Smaller accounts focus on local events in a reporting and organizing context, whereas the medium-sized ones provide a snapshot of early ISIS media releases to create a pull. ISIS cannot achieve its objectives of propagation, recruitment and operational mission coordination on social media without leaving itself exposed to scrutiny. Starkly, the most important information is generally featured in small accounts, with the large ones generally focusing on noise, as the content is far more stage-managed. According 35 Frampton, M., Fisher, A., & Prucha, N. “The New Netwar: countering Extremist Online”.Policy Exchange. 2017. 36 Berger, J. M., & Morgan, J. “The ISIS Twitter Census”. The Brookings Project on US Relations with the Islamic World. 2015. Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 13 - Año: 2019 - Págs.: 275 a 306
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