Obama Losing ISIS Propaganda War

The United States is still leading an all-out airstrike campaign against the Islamic State, but President Obama is already admitting, ISIS is beating the US one on crucial battleground: the internet. Islamic State militants have launched an extremely effective recruiting campaign, luring thousands of young fighters from foreign countries to leave home and fight for jihad. Websites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have all been instrumental in broadcasting a message of violence all over the world.

Ever since beheading videos surfaced on the internet, the Islamic State has been several steps ahead of the US in their social media campaign. Every move by the US has been reactive, instead of pro-active. US fighter jets dropped a weapons stash intended for Kurds fighting in Kobani. ISIS fighters captured the weapons and posted videos of their new spoils on YouTube. It took the US several days to verify if the video was even accurate, let alone deal with the effect of the viral message out there in the open for all to see.

Now, leaders of the FBI and NSA are scrambling to take control of social media, cell phone records and emails in order to monitor the communications and efforts of the Islamic State. They especially want to track how ISIS might be connecting with young Islamic men living in America. But ever since the Edward Snowden leaks, companies like Google, Yahoo, Apple and Facebook have all taken big steps to block the government from invading people’s privacy.

If you thought the battle for your privacy was over, think again. The NSA, FBI and the Obama Administration are all actively pursuing a way to track private communication, and they’re hiding behind ISIS to do it.