Last night an Al Qaeda affiliate asked it's loyal Twitter followers for suggestions to help with Public Relations, and the Twitter hive mind answered.
J.M. Berger, a counter terrorism expert who wrote the book Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Jihad, started the trolling with this tweet:
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
Then it picked up steam:
On a scale of 1 to al-Qaeda, how explosive is your love for me? #اقتراحك_لتطوير_اﻹعلام_الجهادي
— Rob Hintz (@Rob_Hintz) August 14, 2013
— Charlie (@timmyconspiracy) August 13, 2013
Apparently everyone is, erm, *blowing up* this militant Jihadi Twitter hashtag: #اقتراحك_لتطوير_الإعلام_الجهادي
— Mark Jaquith (@markjaquith) August 14, 2013
Have you considered creating a boy band? #اقتراحك_لتطوير_الإعلام_الجهادي
— Beau Scheier (@BeauScheier) August 14, 2013
New jihadi training video: Out with the monkey bars, in with hot yoga #اقتراحك_لتطوير_اﻹعلام_الجهادي
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 13, 2013
Then the original al Qaeda poster tweets this out:
#اقتراحك_لتطوير_الإعلام_الجهاديالعلوج الامريكية تشارك في الهاشتاق :(
— اااه يا قلبي (@gdslooptadhi) August 14, 2013
The rough translation is "American infidels involved in 'Al Hastaq' (hash tag) of suggestions for public relations (frowny face emoticon)."
J.M. Berger, not satisfied with the total trolling, immediately called them out for their use of emoticons:
What makes this AQ complaint about us hijacking their hashtag awesome is the sad face emoticon http://t.co/YsYhPiPQyg
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 14, 2013