#you_tried.A jihadist Twitter account tried to solicit suggestions from the al Qaeda community Wednesday by creating the hashtag #اقتراحك_لتطوير_الإعلام_الجهادي, which roughly translates to #Suggestions_to_develop_Jihadist_media, according to a linguist fluent in Arabic who translated it for Business Insider.For its first twelve hours online, the hashtag actually gained some steam, garnering suggestions such as “To do a bi-weekly TV program to discuss, specifically, Jihadi events and Islam generally. To be produced by official institutions.”But that all changed when counter-terrorism expert J.M. Berger, author of the book Jihadi Joe: Americans who Go to War in the Name of Islam discovered the hashtag.
Hey everybody, Al Qaeda is using this hashtag to solicit ideas for media ops #اقتراحك_لتطوير_اﻹعلام_الجهادي — you should all send some.— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 13, 2013
After Berger signal boosted the hashtag, Twitter trolls flooded the feed with some pretty useful suggestions, one on how to go viral:
More cats in online video releases @intelwire #اقتراحك_لتطوير_اﻹعلام_الجهادي— Herschel Jacobson (@RealSkunkApe) August 13, 2013
And another to reach out to the tween demographic:
This. RT @BeauScheier: Have you considered creating a boy band? #اقتراحك_لتطوير_الإعلام_الجهادي— Caroline Winslow (@CarolineWinslow) August 15, 2013 Berger later thanked Twitter trolls for their efforts to overtake the thread. Thanks guys, couldn’t have done it without you. :-)— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 14, 2013 The hashtag’s creator, @gdslooptadhi, has been suspended from Twitter, but before being booted, the account tweeted: “#suggestions_to_develop_Jihadist_media The American Infidels take part in the hashtag : (” in Arabic, frowning emoticon and all.
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