- published: 14 Mar 2015
- views: 308
President Francois Hollande's government started its first anti-ISIS online communication campaign, "Stop Jihadism," on February 5. The effort is aimed at countering recruiting in France by ISIS and other jihadist groups.
The French government's campaign, posted on YouTube, features an online video edited in the style of an ISIS video -- complete with harrowing music showing screenshots of Facebook accounts from ISIS supporters.
After a few seconds, a Facebook message from a purported ISIS supporter pops up on the screen: "Hey, I like the stuff you like on Facebook. Are you interested in what's going in Syria these days? If you have any question, don't hesitate. The truth is over there, you should go! ... I can put you in touch with friends who are fighting there."
Then, the images of crying children and the warning about "hell on Earth" play.
"This is video is very simple and goes straight to the point," Brisard said. "It is important to counter propaganda. It is worse to do nothing."
ut ISIS fired back just two days after France began its new initiative, posting its own material with French-speaking ISIS fighters mocking the government's campaign.
ISIS supporters used Twitter to post graphics with the same typography and the same kind of slogans as the French government campaign. When the French government used catchphrases such as, "If you go to Syria, you will massacre civilians," ISIS supporters replied online with slogans telling potential recruits if they go to Syria, they would be "happy to kill" their enemies, as opposed to leading depressed lives in France.
Other jihadist groups have joined in the effort to counter the French campaign.
Omar Diaby, purported to be one of the most influential French jihadist recruiters, released a trailer video focused on the January attacks in Paris. The video, called "Once upon a time Charlie," an obvious reference to the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, features French-speaking al Qaeda fighters, uses special effects, music and voices of male, female and teenage jihadists.
Speakers in the video praise the names of the brothers who carried out the attacks, and they try to argue against the French government with lines such as, "France pretends to be a country of free speech but censors all the time our video."
A Web of possibilities for recruiters
Last September, the French government commissioned an anti-radicalization organization called the Prevention Center Against Sectarianism Related to Islam, which goes by the French acronym CPDSI, to counter online recruitment of French youths by jihadist groups.
"The recruitment and the first contacts are most of the time established on the Internet," said Donia Bouzar, director of CPDSI.
According to a study published by the CPDSI, jihadists in charge of online recruitment use specific arguments to attract young people.
These arguments target five different categories of individuals who could be susceptible to recruitment such as "heroic knight" for men or "humanitarian cause" for women. Other categories include young people who are avid players of war video games, aimless teens looking for a leader or people who are simply "in need of power."
According to the CPDSI, young French people who get involved with jihadist groups are from a range of economic, social and religious backgrounds. In fact, most of the families whose teens become involved with jihadist groups consider themselves to be nonreligious or atheist, the CPDSI says.