'It's similar to North Korea': Inside ISIS's sophisticated strategy to brainwash people in the 'caliphate'
Pamela Engel
ISIS LiveLeakLiveLeakA "media point" in Mosul, Iraq.
Billboards, newsletters, radio stations, murals, big-screens, and pamphlets.
ISIS inundates the residents of its territory with propaganda that has become nearly impossible to escape.
It's well-known that ISIS has been very successful in disseminating its propaganda online to recruit Westerners to its self-proclaimed Islamic "caliphate," the swath of territory it controls in Iraq and Syria.
But ISIS also runs a sophisticated operation within the caliphate to brainwash the population it rules. The group has set up "media points" in the cities it controls to maximize the exposure of its propaganda to the public.
The media points are surprisingly high-tech. People can submit their own material or download media from machines that have built-in slots for SIM cards and flash drives. Large flat-screen TVs set up in public places show gruesome beheading videos alongside scenes of utopia. One activist from Raqqa, Syria, compared the screens ISIS has placed in central areas of the city to Times Square in New York — highly visible and well-known to those who live there.
ISIS also uses more old-school propaganda methods like blaring messages from speakers on trucks and hosting public beheadings.
"There's wall-to-wall propaganda in the caliphate. It's similar to North Korea," Charlie Winter, an expert on jihadism and ISIS propaganda, told Business Insider last month in London. "It obscures the realities of life and tempers discontent. It becomes a means of stabilization and continuous control."
Propaganda also serves to promote the ISIS brand — the group sets itself apart from other jihadist factions and terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda by casting itself as a legitimate government that provides services (like education, trash collection, and policing) to the people of the caliphate.
In tandem with blasting its propaganda out everywhere in the caliphate, ISIS — also known as the Islamic State — chokes off internet access to limit exposure to information from the outside world.
"A majority of people don't believe [ISIS propaganda], but that coupled with a lack of any other information will impact thinking and decision-making," Winter said. "It's totalitarian politicking. You can really break down someone's ability to resist the state."
Media points
ISIS attracts those living in its caliphate to its media points by setting up installations that resemble outdoor movie theaters — public gathering places with big screens showing slickly produced videos that are available for download to anyone who has a USB drive.
ISIS propaganda "is familiar for the people of Raqqa," Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, an activist with the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, told Business Insider last month via Skype. "They put big screens in the cities and the roundabouts."
Raqqawi is from ISIS's de-facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, and still has family living in the city. He uses a pseudonym to mask his true identity as he travels to and from ISIS territory with the help of smugglers.
Raqqawi said there are several media points in Raqqa.
"It's a small city," Raqqawi said. "It's like if you go to Times Square ... you will find these screens, they are playing videos, so it's familiar for the people there."
And these propaganda centers can be found in cities across the caliphate — not just its capital.
ISIS has disseminated photos of its members setting up these media points in cities including Fallujah, Ramadi, and Mosul in Iraq; Deir Ezzor, Aleppo, and Raqqa in Syria; and Sirte and Derna in Libya.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington, DC-based organization cofounded by a former Israeli military-intelligence officer, published a report recently detailing how the media points are set up in various cities.
ISIS media center FallujahMEMRI
ISIS media center FallujahMEMRIChildren are often shown in the front row of these outdoor theaters.
ISIS media center FallujahMEMRIAn ISIS media center in Fallujah, Iraq.
"They take different forms — simple booths, trucked-in prefab units, impromptu open-air movie theaters, and more," the report read. "The media points serve ISIS as a tool for indoctrinating local communities, from the very young to the very old, in the areas that it already controls, by providing access to its videos, pamphlets, and other educational and promotional materials, especially in areas where Internet is spotty or nonexistent."
ISIS has cracked down on internet access in its territory, banning Wi-Fi and keeping a close watch on public internet cafes. The media points provide easy access to ISIS propaganda that is otherwise disseminated online and accessible to those outside its territory.
Videos, audio files, and other promotional materials are available directly from the media points using USB flash drives and SIM cards, as this graphic from MEMRI illustrates:
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http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-propaganda-strategy-2015-11
