A 19-year-old US citizen was arrested in Pennsylvania today for using the internet to recruit for ISIS. From within his parents’ house, Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz created a stockpile of weapons and spent his days chatting about buying women as slaves and killing US soliders, using Twitter handles like @MuslimBruh0.
According to the DOJ’s unsealed criminal complaint, Aziz used 57 Twitter accounts to spread ISIS propaganda and recruit new members.
His case is an example of the endless whack-a-terrorist cycle that social networks face in attempts to stop terrorists from using their services. As soon as Twitter closed one account, Aziz would open another:
It appears that Twitter routinely suspends AZIZ’s accounts due to the radical nature of his postings, which violate Twitter’s policies. AZIZ then responds by creating backup accounts or opening a new Twitter account with slightly different variations of the common user names that he uses.
Police discovered a stash of weapons in a “go bag” Aziz’s closet, including five loaded M4-style high-capacity magazines and a kitchen knife.
This isn’t the only case of a domestic ISIS Twitter propagandist facing legal problems today—a Rochester, NY pizza shop owner pled guilty to recruiting for the Islamic State in a federal court.
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Image by AP