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.

In November 1999, Nancy Matthews arrived at Tehran airport at 3 o’clock in the morning. Susan Koscis followed directly behind her. Koscis had made the trip a few years earlier through an NGO called Search for Common Ground, when she organised a visit of American wrestlers. Nancy was now planning to find and bring Iranian artists back to the United States for an exhibition. Koscis and Nancy were cultural diplomats.

Elio Alvarez and Lideisy Hernandez [...] joined the largest migration from their homeland in decades. Buying two smartphones for $160 apiece […] they plugged themselves into a highly organized, well-funded […] effort to make human traffickers obsolete by using smartphones and messaging apps on much of the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) overland journey [...] to the U.S.

When one ISIS-affiliated channel was shut down by the Telegram app on Wednesday, another would pop up. [...] ISIS doesn't appear to rely on any one platform to communicate publicly and privately. But experts have noted a troubling shift, in particular, to Telegram.

The program fits neatly with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's new focus on sports diplomacy. The 2015-18 strategy launched in June this year aims to use sports skills, facilities and knowledge to promote Australia and strengthen links with countries and communities in the region.

It had been a "a real coup" for Australia and had probably generated "more than $60 million of free publicity" for the country, he said. And the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade praised Eurovision in its annual report, acknowledging it as a boon for "public diplomacy" that had showcased Australia’s creative talent to 200 million viewers. 

After a bomb blast Tuesday evening in Yola, Nigeria, took the lives of at least 31 people, Facebook announced the activation of its Safety Check feature, a button that enables people in disaster areas to let their friends and family know they’re out of harm’s way. Zuckerberg made the announcement on his Facebook page. “... we made the decision to use Safety Check for more tragic events like this going forward..."

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.