Islamic State Propaganda Urges Follower to Conduct Disinformation Warfare

Recently published Islamic State propaganda urges followers to conduct disinformation warfare. The publication states that disinformation is a “duty” and should be considered part of the Islamic State’s “war policy.”

This call to action appears in the fifth issue of the Voice of Khurasan, the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch’s English-language magazine. The article discusses why disinformation is an effective tool, such as spreading fear and confusion among and fragmenting enemies. “If we can shake the chain of the enemy and divide them that is part of the war policy to divide them and defeat them … [s]preading the rumors is therefore a duty upon the Muslim armies to cause fragmentation of the enemy because that disunity will demoralise them significantly.”

Similar to other recent Islamic State propaganda which called for “social media warfare,” the article advocates followers exploit any media tool to spread disinformation. “By all its types whether audio, visual, paper, satellite or internet,” using various forms of media “is a necessity and is also urgent in order to propagate and cause defeatism and demoralization of the enemy, and show the strength of the mujahideen,” the article said. Read more at Homeland Security Today.