A few days ago, I watched Sen. Ron Johnson, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, in an interview on CNN, wherein he discussed the Islamic State (Isis) threat in the wake of the Texas shooting.
On May 3, the Twitter account of “Shariah is Light”—later revealed to be an Arizona man and subject of terror investigations, Elton Simpson—would hint at responsibility for an upcoming terror attack in Garland, Texas and claim allegiance to IS on behalf of himself and the other attacker:
American actor and musician Jimmy Dean once said, "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." To that point, there is no better example of adaptation-for-the-worse than the virus than the Islamic State (IS) on Twitter. As waves of social media administrators, hackers, and well intentioned citizens have continually attempted to push back at IS on social media—via shutting down, hacking, and reporting their accounts—it still thrives on Twitter.
The U.S. Senate's report on the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation tactics, which included graphic accounts of torture, has ignited an overwhelming response from the online jihadist community, with many calling for retaliation against the U.S. and promoting jihad.
From Rita Katz's Washington Post article, "Homesick jihadists are debating whether to return to their comfortable lives in the West":