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VOL. IX, Issue 4

The Metronome of Apocalyptic Time: Social Media as Carrier Wave for Millenarian Contagion

The Islamic State uses social media to activate a sense of “apocalyptic time” among its supporters online. Key elements of this campaign include instilling a sense of temporal acceleration and imminent arrival of end-times scenarios, leveraging the dynamics of social contagion and remote intimacy on beliefs that have an inherently viral appeal, and providing a vehicle for supporters outside its territories to immerse themselves in a highly idealized version of its millenarian project, the so-called caliphate. The Islamic State is the first group to employ these amplifying tactics on social media at an industrial scale, but it will likely not be the last.

ICCT Latest Research Visit icct

Domestic Terrorism: How the US Legal System is Falling Short
Camden Carmichael, Brooke Buxton, Seamus Hughes, Clara Braun
Standards for Employing Formers in P/CVE
Gordon Clubb, Katharina Sengfelder, Mary Beth Altier, Ryan Scrivens, Didarul Islam

About ICCT

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) is a think-and-do tank based in The Hague, Netherlands. We provide research, policy advice, training and other solutions to support better counter-terrorism policies and practices worldwide. We also contribute to the scientific and publi.…