ISIS created fake news network imitating CNN and Al Jazeera

The Islamic State (IS) maintained a fake news network that mimicked the real profiles of media giants. ISIS support group called “War and Media” created fake agency profiles CNN This Al Jazeera on various social networks.

The information was announced by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) yesterday (17). According to the organization, WM started with a small Telegram channel. Two weeks later, I already had two accounts on Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).

These accounts appeared to be legitimate Facebook profiles. CNN This Al JazeeraIt aired edited videos and documentaries that were intended to appear as original content produced by the American network and the global network, with versions in English and Arabic.

WM’s strategy of creating fake news with edited material was not new. However, the approach of using profiles meticulously created to mimic famous news agencies was an innovation for the group.

They managed to bombard the internet through three social networks, and even prepared a video with the Netflix brand as a reaction to the Mosul movie published by the platform.

War and the Media’s “counter-attack” strategy

War and Media had a bold strategy to spread Islamic State ideologies. The group focused on “combatting fake news” through edited material published by real news agencies. Most of this information was specifically about ISIS.

WM was active for a short time but surprisingly managed to evade the controls of the world’s three largest social networks.

Although the group had a relatively small number of followers, individual profiles were often seen downloading and re-sharing videos, thus gaining tremendous visibility online.

The tactics used by War and Media are similar to those used by the Russian government to convey false information. They even infiltrated legitimate campaigns with spies, posing as activists against the cause, creating terror and chaos with messages of hatred and violence.

According to website Intelligence Group“News Harvest,” the ISIS-supporting media group that tracks terrorist and extremist campaigns online, is using artificial intelligence to spread hateful messages.

Technology allows misinformation to be created and shared en masse quickly and cheaply. There are even artificial intelligence-generated fake news anchors in the videos created by the group.