United States, British corporations help ISIS


This video says about itself:

28 March 2015

In Yemen, Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the ousted President have renewed their battle. That’s as Saudi Arabia and its allies have been targeting the anti-government faction for the third night in a row with air strikes. Political analyst Hani Ali believes Riyadh is indirectly helping out Islamic State [ISIS].

By Anthony Cuthbertson:

Anonymous exposes US and UK companies hosting pro-Isis websites

April 8, 2015 15:41 BST

Online hacktivist collective Anonymous has released a comprehensive list of websites suspected to be linked to Islamic State (Isis), together with the companies responsible for hosting the content. Many of the web hosting companies are UK, Europe and US-based, provoking criticism that they are complicit in disseminating Isis propaganda used to recruit members and incite terror attacks.

The latest release forms part of Op Isis (#OpISIS), an ongoing cyber campaign carried out by the amorphous group designed to disrupt Isis‘ online operations and “cure the Isis Virus”. It was compiled by GhostSec, a prominent faction of Anonymous that has been monitoring Isis through its social media channels.

“These websites were collected by monitoring Islamic State accounts on Twitter and logging them over a period of three months,” an Anonymous member involved in compiling the list told IBTimes UK.

“We believe it is critical for the world to see who is hosting this type of content and we believe they should be held accountable. These web assets pose a great risk as they are a source of recruitment for Islamic State and a communications platform used to conduct atrocities against humankind.”

The list includes prominent companies like CloudFlare and Yahoo! Europe, responsible for providing server space for the domain name and protecting the sites from cyber threats like DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.

“All websites listed below are frequently used by the Islamic State through Twitter and other social media platforms for transmission of propaganda, religion, recruitment, communications and intelligence gathering purposes. (Web host companies) are unaware of their customers content or they turn a blind eye for easy profit and choose to accept bloodmoney. CloudFlare is by far the largest offender on this list and they have been made aware of the specified content they are protecting… Together we can stop this from spreading and hold these companies accountable for their less than ethical business practices.”

GhostSec statement

IBTimes UK has reached out to several of the UK and US-based firms, including CloudFlare, but no response to requests for comment have yet been given.

Many of the websites listed do not appear to have any affiliation with jihadist groups, however links can be found to extremists and supporters of Isis when traced back to related social media accounts.

As an example, the site dr-algzouli.com, hosted by Web Hosting UK, can be linked to a Twitter profile of the same name that expresses support for a caliphate under Islamic State rule.

Hundreds of websites allegedly associated with Isis have already been attacked by Anonymous and its affiliates.

Most recently Anonymous claims to have attacked 233 websites and “destroyed” 85 of them as part of OpIsis.

Lists of Twitter accounts related to Isis have also been released, however the methods employed by Isis members and its supporters have meant that having them reported and removed has so far proved ineffective.

A separate source within Anonymous previously told this publication that Twitter provides a Hydra-like platform for Isis to thrive.

More than 25,000 Isis-related Twitter accounts have been released, however thousands more have since taken their place.

This article will be updated if CloudFlare, Web Hosting UK and other companies respond to a request for comment.

1 thought on “United States, British corporations help ISIS

  1. As the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) demolishes nation states, ISIS’s obscene savagery seems to epitomize the violence. Some will see the group’s ferocious irredentism as proof of Islam’s chronic inability to embrace modern values. Although ISIS is an Islamic movement, it is neither typical nor mired in the distant past, because its roots are in the Salafi practice of Wahhabism, a form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia that developed only in the 18th century. The European Parliament identified Wahhabism as the main source of global terrorism. As more youngsters in Europe find solace in Salafism and join the ranks of ISIS the question arises: How did Saudi-Arabia’s Wahhabis export global terrorism to Europe’s youngsters?

    Our first speaker will be Drs. Paul Aarts. Drs. Aarts is a lecturer in International Relations at the department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. He is a specialist on the Middle East in general and the Gulf states in particular. He has researched the political dynamics of Saudi Arabia extensively.

    Our second speaker will be Professor Frank Bovenkerk. Prof. Bovenkerk is a criminologist and an anthropologist, and has been given an endowed chair of FORUM Frank Buijs in Radicalization Studies at the faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. He is a specialist in issues concerning radicalizations and organized crimes within minority groups. He contributes extensively on the issue of radicalization and salafism.

    So come and join SiB-Amsterdam on the 13th of April at 20.00h in REC C1.04, Nieuwe Achtergracht 16

    https://www.facebook.com/events/1410427179270810/

    Like

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