My cohost and digital producer is bringing in all of your feedback throughout the show. So waj, the Group Formerly known as isis, now known as the Islamic State group, it can be confusing. One of our goals is to give people a baseline about this group. They have been doing a good job promoting their own brand name. Savvy with social media as we found out. Mohammed who we assume from his twitter profile is a supporter of Islamic State group tweets saying five names. Wake up my brother in this blessed month of ramadum. There are thousands 1350id on. You are a target, too. They use the hash tag which is arabic for the Islamic State. Maybe i should be scared i am beingtrolled by members of the Islamic State group. Guests will better answer it after ni 9 years and 1. 7 trilln in rack, there is no doubt, there is a attack in the crisis escalating there. You might not know that the group that calls itself the Islamic State formerly known as isis hasnt only been making way in key iraqi citizens but where everyone can watch unfold until realtime. From youtube, twitter and facebook to professional info graphic did and their own mobile app, the group Islamic State is executing a highly strategic social Media Campaign to spread its cause. While its nothing new for fighters to reform and recruit, experts say this level of sophistication is unprecedented in that Islamic State may be most social mediasaifk rebel group yet. They are reportedly the best funded. Its a new theatre of war big the question of whether it wields influence and power or just propaganda. How concerned should you be . And what, if anything, should governments be doing about it . Joining United States out of new york, a 7 ario analyst at flashpoint Global Partners that monitors militant websites. From los angeles,cal action director for the center of global doesnt al cultures. He studies how new Media Technologies shape social and political movements. Thanks to both of you for joining us. Rammesh, the social Media Campaign that they have launched is getting a lot of attention. We mentioned other groups have used these platforms. Whats different about what Islamic State is doing and how they are doing it . Indeed, the colbert report had a recent story saying isis or now the Islamic State invades hash tagatho. What we are see something a far more immediate engagement with social media tools that are reaching peoples homes across the world. Its extremely calculated, intel jefrnt, multiplatform based, multiactor base for a variety of tubes we are seeing it on sound clowsed. The mashup of the mineral obama photograph, uses of various types of hashtags to highject world cup audiences. We are seeing a variety of tools being used to advocate agendas the some are sympathetic, some about movementbuilding, some inspiring fear and some are just about being strong and projecting a sense of strength. How sophisticated can do you think it is . Probably today one of the most sophisticated terrorist groups to use social media. A great part of their followers and supporters and even fighters are young and since they grew up in this digital social Media Technology world they group up on mobile, touch screen computers, savvy, able to utilize Computer Graphics in ways we havent seen before. By being a Propaganda Machine that has multiple levels to reach out to its audience and also to those who are neutral whether its speeches by top leaders, ranging from that to mutt statedistics about operations, reporting from certain regions where a lot of International Media cant have access to. So we have those guys reporting from the battlefield this is one of the most so far theist educatet safetied groups since post911. Talking about sophistication. Again, lisa, these are sympathizers of the Islamic State based upon their profile and tweets, we have a picture of when you break the fast. They are drinking coke, eating lamb, a great time. He said new recruits in training, a cat. Both of his cats lifting weights. We have the Islamic State distributing meat to the muslims of iraq for ramada. The khalifate is restored. This is a part of their digital footprint. They are more transparent, talking about cats, talking about pepsi. What does this reveal about their personality . And what does this reveal about their specific propaganda . A youth culture. Alqaeda and some of these other groups are considered oldfashioned compared to the practices of this group. They are trying to work every. Angle possible. Using types of meme. Its an interesting attempt to be cosmopoltan in a global and said you cantive way. There is nothing more odd and bizarre and cosmopoltan in an odd way than the meme of the cat picture. An alternate notion of the global, an a lot ealternate not what the cosmopoltal should be using these tools. Because you have 5,000 friends on facebook doesnt mean you have 5,000 friends who will do anything for you what power and influence do you think Islamic State has utilizing social media . Like any organization, without having a odium to bring the message to the audience, regardless of how big an organization you are, Islamic State upses this as much as any organization trying to keep its reputation by utilizing social media in a multiptude of ways, you areability reach a multitude of classifications to society releasing in different languages, german, dutch, so on and so forthtion, you are reaching multiple segments of society, different languages and at the same time, youre cu customizing that message for that specific audience. If you are preaching to a western audience, its a little different part of their success in this Propaganda Machine is able to customize and tailor that message to fit that audience. Hang on. We are running out of time. This message outs there this is a powerful message. It is being perceived as a violent message. How do you think governments should be responding, particularly regional leaders like almalaki or the gulf regimes . Yeah. Gid . Go ahead. First, please. Okay. Okay. Sorry. My 0. 02 on this is that this is a multiheaded snake. If you cut off any single sort of system of mediation like twitter banning various accounts, the snake will grow new types of heads. So you have to actually did he have 2350e9 this movement in the same sort cultural way on these different types of platforms. Remember, many of the actors that are using these sort of social Media Technologies are actually youth that were born in the west, themselves. So this is a very, very complicated set of networks and governments would show defeat by cutting off these accounts in my opinion. Erica says let them stay on social media. Government and Law Enforcement use it is. Why cant they do the same. Is is twitter the new battlefield . How should the United States government respond to the Islamic State group . I am a big believer in counter radicalization. I think when you, as he said, you cut off the one head and another grows or multiple grow. There are windows into how this group things and how its followers adhere to that ideology. I think we have to have a counter radicalization online in the same on the same platform that isis is using, we can have people who are actually providing i hope sight on how to not join this group or reasons why we shouldnt join this Group Whether its killing other muslims, causing afterok havoc, there is no reference for the rule of law. Its gruesome and brutal. We need to utilize every Single Online medium in order to counter this kind of rhetoric. Should the u. S. Set its sights on the Islamic State as the new alqaeda. Their objectives, the risk every day iraqis face trying to go about their every day routine . The situation is volatile. Anything can happen at any time. People dont know how to go on their daily life. Those closest to the conflict. On tech know, what if there was a miracle . Graces stem cells are in this box. That could save the live of your child. Were gonna do whatever we can would yo give it a try . Cell therapy is gonna be the next big advance in medicine tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive every done, even though i cant see. Tech know. Were here in the vortex. Only on al jazeera america. G1 welcome back. We are discussing the continuing crisis in iraq. The group, Islamic State formerly known as isis originated from the global Alqaeda Network but had a falling out. Some say their tactics are more brutal than alqaeda. Here to talk about that and the differentiating features is abbas kadam, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins university. He has studied the middle east and national security. From washington, d. C. , a political scientist Whose Research focuses on sectarian and political transition in iraq. Thanks to both of you for being here. Ab at abouts, the group Islamic State should be to be part of alqaeda. Why did they split, and how are they different . Well, normally, with all of these groups, there are many reasons for sometimes disagreement. Some leadership. Sometimes there is a tactic that needs some groups to work on different projects than others. But i think that the split happened when alqaeda disowned isi isnt and they said their tactics, we dont approve of their tactics, which means they went really extreme and i cant imagine how extreme they were when alqaeda, itself, said they are too extreme. Thats the reason why they split out of alqaeda. How does a group get any political transaction when they are even too extreme for alqaeda in . They get this kind of traction because they are working with a certain positioning for their own means and people see in their work some goals. They might tactically accept them and host them, hoping that once these goals are achieved, they can get rid of them. I think it is unwise for any group to i am brassy and host Something Like isis because as we have seen, dislodging them is completely easier said than do. Some people in the west have actually compared alqaeda and the Islamic State but it seems that he they both have very different targets. Can you explain that a little bit . Yep. I think the difference between alqaeda and isis is to a certain extent related to the environment in which they were operating. The operational difference is shaped political and ideology is alqaeda is more a source of inspiration for jihadists around the world than an actual leadership of all of the groups related to it in organizational or ideological terms particularly after u. S. Occupation of afghanistan, alqaeda was militarily and financially weakened until itsability to control the wor Worldwide Network of jihadits. Doesnt seem to target alqaeda seems to target more westerners. It seems Islamic State doesnt mind if there are muslims as collateral damage. Am i reading this wrong . Exactly. I think ices is the latest incarnation of a group that was formed in iraq in 2004, led by the not toreous alzarkawi. All of the groups pledged ale allegiance to alqaeda, osama bin laden. But disagreements with alqaeda, there were letters exchanged between the now leader of alqaeda in which they disagreed about the actions that the group has taken, especially know tore russ instruct ability and brutality and the focus on targeting shia civilians. This is why i said isis has been shaped and influenced by the conflict in iraq, which is a conflict very much shaped by the sectarian divide. We have a community here, the goal of ices is to seek power by force while alqaeda or jihadists and groups have geological boundaries inentired by the cilphates the states group said making this a unilateral move of calphate, did they delegitmize . I dont believe so. I think their sympathizers are more excited about the idea that now, they have restored the caliphate. I think they are moved to establish a caliphate fits into the differences that he was talking about between them and alqaeda and i think that haraf is quite right saying that this kind of split goes time and again and now, alqaeda isnt interested in sectarian strife in the same way isis is. But they are establishing a caliphate in their mounds. Until now, there isnt such thing on the ground we see this is the difference between alqaeda and isis. Alqaeda is more of an International Group not geographically attached to a certain place and it is more interested in causes than geographical areas. So. I apologize. We are out of time. Thank you for joining us. Still ahead how to iraqis think america should respond to the turmoil if at all . The direct or have been exacerbated by the u. S. The religion to lack of basic needs here from those talked about the most different from the least. Welcome back. We are talking about the accelerating turmoil. On skype, a writer from baghdad who blogs for shakamako. Net. Director of policy at the Kurdish Policy Foundation and via foam, malak, a young activist in basra, iraq. He asked we hide his identity out of concern for his safety. Thank you for all being here. Malak, you have asked that we not identify you. What is happening on the ground in iraq thats making you so afraid office to be honest, its just a precaution. I mean it may not jeopardize my safety. Its just as a precaution because we are basically in a war zone at the end david you cant be social. Being on something. You are on the ground there. We have been talking about the group called Islamic State. How are local populations reacting to them there i can speak about it most of the time because i am available here, you know. I am not really sure how it is up there where they are. In basra, i can honestly feel the people real ready to talk about them taking over basically. We have we have a lot go ahead. Go ahead. Hello . Go ahead. We have a lot of Community Interest and community questions, lisa. People want to ask, iraqis whats happening on the ground. We have mikey on facebook. He asks this question if the Islamic State group could establish a secure, prosperous and functional government, is that something you would consider supporting despite a potential loss of certain freedoms . I want you to answer that question. Absolutely not because its not just about government that people want. What isis want top engulf in society harms not only women but its a very rigid and extremist order that they want to enforce on society. In fact, just weeks when they went into mosul, they presented people with a list of things to do, especially women, which is one of them being do not leave your house unless you have a justification. So immediately, they restricted Womens Movement and they restricted womens rights. So thats a huge problem for people. Akmed, do mainstream muslims see the group Islamic State has hurting their cause . I think anyone with any kind of semblance of iq would recognize that the Islamic State or whatever they call themselves are, in fact, a terrorist group and using islamic jihadist groups to terrorize local populations has been something thats been going on since the 80s in afghanistan and we see it now in iraq and we are living in the proceed verbial i told you so moment. 10 years ago, when people were out there on the street trying to say, dont occupy iraq. Dont invade iraq. This is whats going to happen. Unfortunately everything to a t has come true. Now we are seeing a signatures where we are looking at the potential split up of the country, degradation of means of sus 10 answer, fundamental human rights, the only sentiment is they want to get out of the country. This is the situation on the ground in iraq. Nothing new here isis, alqaeda, it sounds a bit like we are doing a secelebrity rumor show trying to get out who is doing what. The situation on the ground has been the same now for over 10 years in iraq and worsening day by day. We have other areas in the region to look at to get a more wider than better conflict than whats happening in iraq and of course, speaking of terrorists, you see the israelis and what they are doing in gaza right now and how that also has an impact on whats happening in iraq and whats happening in syria. So, its important for us to understand thats what happening in iraq didnt start three weeks ago or four weeks ago, when a bunch of crazies took over armed points, checkpoints or armed weapon rein mosul. This has been going on for a long time. Rawadi, president obama announced a 5 billion fund for u. S. Special forces to do Counter Terrorism training. Is this the answer to the crisis, more military training, more Police Training . The authorities spent billions on training the iraqi army and trying to stabilize the regions. Unfortunately, the iraqi army fled at the first instance of countering isis in mosul. The problem everyone is missing is that the Central Government had enough warnings from the kurdish authorities that something went wrong in mosul that there were insurgent groups and armed men and jihadists coming together to probably form what we see as isis but they didnt take it. Even today, almalaki threatened it. He said erbu was the headquarters for terrorists which isnt true. The problem we are seeing is not just the armed men. Its about the Central Government ignoring not only the kurdish authorities but significant parts of the iraqi population. I dont think you need military training and what we need is a government thats inclusive all different ethnic groups and different sectarian groups in iraq. Akmed, we have about 15 seconds left. Are you optimistic about the future . Absolutely optimistic only because i know the resilience of iraqis we have been endured generocidal safrnthsz, three wa now thanks to america and the american army. So, i think we are very well versed with this and will over corporeal. I think its imports for people to try to, you know, put a bit of context and analyzing iraq. All right. . Tweet to tweet. Thats it for today. Thanks to all of our guests. Waj and i will see you online