ISIS Hashtags on Twitter: A Content Analysis

In the new media age, the impact of terrorism has been felt in every part of the world irrespective of geographical boundaries. After the September 11 (9/11) 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in the United States of America, most of the countries started to come up with strategies to combat international terrorism. Major terrorist organizations like the Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram have manifested their power through the use of social networking sites (SNS) such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Social media is therefore seen as a panacea for terrorist activities. The research aims firstly at looking at the Twitter usage by major terrorist groups namely Al-Qaeda, ISIS and Boko Haram. Secondly, the research also examines ISIS Tweet hashtags in the month of January 2019. In conducting this research, the use of ISIS Tweets hashtags was accessed and analysed through a content analysis. Findings from the study highlight that 575 tweets sent on ISIS hashtags contain ideological, violent, propaganda, new reports and theological messages. Ideological Tweets emerges as the most popular Tweets on ISIS hashtags on Twitter in the month of January 2019 with a percentage of 34%, followed by Violent tweets which is 28%, Propaganda which is 19%, news reports which is 14% and Theology which is 5% respectively.