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The US State Department is using social media to combat extremist group Islamic State, allegedly posting photos of dead fighters on Twitter.
The department has set up a Twitter account named "Think again, turn away" as an anti-jihad public relations vehicle that tweets about air strikes, Islamic state massacres and the work Iraqi and Kurdish forces are doing in the region.
However, intelligence analyst Rita Katz has called the account a "gaffe machine" that "walks dangerous ethical lines".
On Tuesday, the department allegedly tweeted photos of four dead Islamic State soldiers.
The tweet was captured by the Daily Mail but appears to have since been deleted.
It is not clear who took the photos, where they were taken or whether the bodies did belong to members of Islamic State.
The intention of the account is to prevent would-be Islamists from joining forces with Islamic State, while also praising the policies of other countries.
This Syrian soldier was filmed digging his own grave, and was then executed on camera.
pic.twitter.com/iIKHxamLpw — Images (@vctv_images)
September 19, 2014
Australian govt promises tighter security, arresting returned jihadists
http://t.co/n6EPfsRspP
#thinkagainturnaway
pic.twitter.com/qT3XlTKH7t — Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS)
September 23, 2014
Kidnapped girl: For every 3 girls sheikh took,
#ISIS kept 1 – girls routinely raped, sold
http://t.co/yR3ucyratU
pic.twitter.com/h45JBz2JsI — Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS)
September 22, 2014
The account also engages in squabbles with Islamic State members.
.
@Abu_Dujana_ everything
#ISIS does is hardest on their victims & families-
#alqaeda ideology shames humanity
http://t.co/iwW1GiyFeU — Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS)
July 30, 2014
Ms Katz, the director of US intelligence group SITE, which studies jihadi extremists' behaviour online, has criticised the Twitter account.;
"The outreach program is not only ineffective, but also provides jihadists with a stage to voice their arguments," Ms Katz wrote in an editorial in Time magazine this month.
"I would much rather see the State Department's online ventures involved in projects that explain the great things American policies have achieved - not arguing with jihadi fighters on who killed more innocent Muslims," she wrote.
.
@Islam4L LIES: They say in the video that these children were wounded in Assad airstrikes. Stop recycling footage as anti-US propaganda — Think AgainTurn Away (@ThinkAgain_DOS)
September 23, 2014
The US embassy in Canberra was contacted for comment.
However, a senior US State Department official last month described the strategy to AFP as a kind of cyber guerilla campaign.
"It is not a panacea, it is not a silver bullet," the official said. "People exaggerate, people think this is worthless or they think it a magic thing that will make the extremists surrender. It is neither one of those. It is slow, steady, daily engagement pushing back on a daily basis.
"It is a war of thousands of skirmishes, but no big battles. America likes big battles but it is not - it is like guerilla warfare," the official said.
The accounts are run by the Centre for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), an experimental unit of the US State Department - America's answer to the propaganda put out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
"The whole ethos of CSCC is to contest the space," Alberto Fernandez, the head of the CSCC, said last May. "There was space the extremists were in and no one was pushing back on them."
Since the outcry over the tweet has gathered pace in the US, the State Department appears to have toned down its bickering with Islamic State supporters.
with AFP; Telegraph, London
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