Dalia Abdelrahim, Assistant Head of the News Channels Sector at the United Media Services Company, revealed that the ISIS terrorist organization, during its peak years in 2014 and 2015, significantly developed many of the mechanisms and tactics of extremism. These were then emulated by most extremist groups. ISIS heavily relied on a powerful media machine, a mix of electronic media skills, and extremist ideologies.

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During her program “The Other Side,” broadcast on the “Cairo News” channel, Abdelrahim said that this media machine, with its networks, battalions, websites, blogs, and accounts, strived to support the organization, disseminate its culture, messages, and methodologies using all available media techniques.

She continued: one of the primary functions of this media machine is the intellectual recruitment of individuals, giving the organization a global character and transferring the battle from the East to the West via the internet and recruited individuals. This media machine enabled ISIS to form a substantial soft power presence in many countries worldwide, particularly in the West, with varying numbers from one country to another.

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According to Abdelrahim, ISIS‘s soft power can be divided into several categories: individuals who were convinced by the organization’s ideology, communicated with its members, interacted with them on social media, and then traveled to Syria or Iraq during the organization’s control. These individuals transitioned from being soft power to becoming active and influential forces on the ground. Initially, traveling to join ISIS was relatively easy when the organization first emerged. This black propaganda reached a wide global audience through social media.

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She added: to combat these terrorist organizations, new procedures and mechanisms must be introduced that surpass the current capabilities of these groups at all educational, cultural, legislative, and legal levels related to combating extremism. This includes strict measures related to prisons, which have proven to be places where young people are easily recruited and transformed into “lone wolves” or sleeper cells that the organization can use when needed.

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Abdelrahim explained that ISIS allocates a significant portion of its financial resources to designing and creating media and propaganda platforms. It recruits skilled content creators, pays them very high salaries, and ensures their security by keeping them away from hotspots where direct confrontations occur.