Last night an Al Qaeda affiliate asked its loyal Twitter followers for suggestions to help with Public Relations, and the Twitter hive mind answered.
A linguist fluent in Arabic tells Business Insider the original hashtag translated to "#Suggestions_to_Develop_Jihadist_Media".
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 reply tweet had the hashtag with an addition, this time translated to: "#Suggestions_to_Develop_Jihadist_Media The American Infidels take part in the hashtag" complete with a frowning 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