Extremists use BBC theme to trick Facebook into showing vile clips

Moustafa Ayad, ISD Deputy Director for Technology, Communications, and Education, is extensively quoted in this article in The Times, which reports on how Islamic State networks circumvent the measures that the big social networks have implemented to detect and block extremist content.

The Times references ISD’s thorough research on this issue: “In 87 days’ research by the ISD, which studies polarisation and extremism, it discovered 90 hijacked Facebook accounts being operated by an ISIS network.”

Moustafa is currently leading the relaunch of the Against Violent Extremism Network (AVE) — the largest, and oldest, global network of former extremists and survivors of extremist attacks — in the United States and Canada. He has advised the United Nations, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom, the United States Department of State, and other global and regional actors on the strategic use of counter and alternative narratives.

His report “The Propaganda Pipeline: The ISIS Fuouaris Upload Network on Facebook” is available in our Publications section.