Anonymous splinter group GhostSec has taken its “war” on Isis to the darknet, replacing a propaganda forum with an advert for Prozac. The site was only recently set up within the Tor darknet by Isis, allegedly in response to Anonymous taking down hundreds of the terrorist group’s websites on the open web.

So ISIS takes pop culture, or soft power, very very seriously indeed, even if we don't. The attacks on Paris demonstrate their cultural focus most of all. They attacked restaurants, theaters, and sports events rather than military or political targets […] The forces that will defeat ISIS aren't the army, the navy, and the air force; they're Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. They have to involve themselves in the war.

The perversion of Islam that IS represents must be addressed primarily by Muslims themselves, but such efforts should be supported by public diplomacy emanating from non-Muslim countries. There is no sure-fire fix, but among the most effective long-term programs for redirecting youthful energies are educational exchanges. 

As I explore in a new Brookings paper, a major reason for this level of [ISIS's] recruiting success has been the group’s savvy use of propaganda and social media. Counter-messaging efforts, meanwhile, have been largely ineffective—in part because they are dwarfed by the sheer size of the ISIS communications footprint, but also because they have been too mono-dimensional and static.

Zineb Benalla, director of the Transnational Initiative Countering Violent Extremism, heads up the independent think tank — established in April 2015 in Casablanca, Morocco, to counter violent extremism and build peace — and spearheaded the effort to introduce education-based projects for youth resilience to violent extremism in Timbuktu, a city in the West African nation of Mali as well as Gao, located on the River Niger.

The government has launched a Twitter account to specifically counter social media propaganda by Islamic State. UK Against Isil, which was launched on Thursday by the Foreign Office, aims to provide “updates on the UK government’s ongoing work to defeat Isil [Isis]”.

Online activists are deploying some surprising strategies to combat ISIS propaganda, and while some experts are applauding their initiative, they are also questioning how much U.S. officials can learn from their efforts.