In the first 24 hours following the terrorist attacks on Paris, there were hundreds of thousands of celebratory tweets from supporters of Islamic State. Some 46,000 Twitter accounts send out a steady stream of photo essays, audio, video, news bulletins and theological writings on behalf of IS.
This is the digital communications battleground in the fight against IS. It’s where the rest of the world is losing. Without at least as swift and powerful action in the digital theater, air attacks may bring only temporary victories and could even help IS’s effective recruitment drive.