A Killer True Crime Fandom & Islamic State’s Digital Caliphate

About this episode

This episode explores the intersection of true crime fandom and the Islamic State's digital presence, featuring insights from experts on online violence.

Things have gotten very surreal in the dark corners of the internet. AI-generated prophets are preaching jihad in Facebook groups, Minecraft servers host digital caliphates, and school shooting fandoms gather to study their heroes and plot how to up beat their score. It’s a double bill on this episode of Angry Planet as two experts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a nonprofit that studies and works to mitigate violent extremists, discuss the brave new world of online-born violence. First up is Milo Comerford, the co-author of a study about nihilistic violence. Then we’ve got Moustafa Ayad to talk about how the Islamic State is circumventing bans and pushing its message on social media. Staying sane on the internet Violence without ideology The Comm 764 True Crime Community Saints Culture When fandom becomes a killing An aesthetics driven movement Online and offline have merged Moderation is impossible You don’t have to hand it to ISIS Broken text posting Copyright strikes and the Islamic State Facebook professional as the gold standard AI resurrects dead influencers Jihad influencers Even IS is obsessed with the Epstein files Virtual caliphates in Roblox and…

People in this episode

Guests: Milo Comerford, Moustafa Ayad

Topics covered

• true crime fandom
• Islamic State
• digital caliphate
• online violence
• nihilistic violence
• social media extremism

Keywords

• AI-generated prophets
• jihad
• Minecraft servers
• school shooting fandoms
• violent extremists
• online moderation

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Minecraft, Roblox, Facebook

Books & works: Angry Planet

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