Israel Matzav

Twitter takes down al-Manar

Last week, MEMRI did a lengthy report on the use of Twitter by terror organizations. I urge you to read the whole thing.

One of the links in the report was to Hezbullah's Twitter page.

The latest designated terrorist organization active on twitter is Hizbullah (http://twitter.com/#1/almanarnews). Other jihadi organizations include the Somali Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahedeen,[5] the Taliban,[6] Jihad Al-Ansar Media,[7] Nukhbat Al-I'lam Al-Jihadi,[8] Ribat Media Center,[9] and many more, on which MEMRI will be reporting soon.

...

Hizbullah's PR efforts can be described as sophisticated. The organization maintains a radio channel, Al-Nour. Another – and most important – front in Hizbullah's PR efforts is Al-Manar TV and its website, which is the center of conveying Hizbullah's activities to the world. The server that hosts the site, www.almanar.com.lb/, is located in London, and the company that owns the IP address to the site, Coreix.net, is Coreix Limited, registered at Third Floor, Refuge House, 9-10 River Front, Enfield, EN1 3SZ, telephone +44 207 183 1725.[24] The website has Arabic, English, French, and Spanish versions.

On November 16, 2011, Hizbullah began tweeting. In the 35 days since it launched its Twitter account, Hizbullah has posted 15,254 tweets – that is, over 400 tweets per day – and has 7,339 followers. The tweets are in Arabic, French, and English. They use Twitter tools including 'Add This,' which bills itself as "the world's largest sharing and social insights platform. AddThis helps you integrate sharing tools into your site, spread your content, and drive social traffic. In-depth analytics provide insight into your audience and their activity."[25]

For the most part, Al-Manar tweets included statements by Hizbullah officials as well as news stories from the Middle East. This past week, Al-Manar focused on following speeches by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; news about the Iranian government and military leaders; statements by Hamas; news from the U.S. Congress; and news about attacks on the U.S. military and NATO. It also tweeted news items regarding CIA-reported spying efforts on Hizbullah in Lebanon. Most of the tweets link back to Al-Manar's website.

But when I followed the link to Hezbullah's Twitter page, this is what I found:

Obviously, at least in some cases, calling out the Jihadi's websites and social media tools helps. Rusty Shackelford is probably the World's biggest expert at taking down these sites. The rest of us have to learn to follow in his footsteps.

Labels: Hezbullah, Twitter

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:35 AM