A TikTok user appears in a photograph holding two children. In another, he is in a gym, training with a worn-out punching bag.
Visually, the TikTok post appears innocuous, but the audio is not.
It consists of a speech given in Arabic, laid over an excerpt of vocal music known as a nasheed.
Nasheeds are common across the Islamic world and are not inherently tied to any ideology – but this one was composed in support of Islamic State.
And because of the way TikTok works, related content is easy to find. Click on the song and it works as an audio hashtag, showing all the other videos that use this song.
Just a touch or click away is much more graphic content.
439 videos are linked on TikTok through their shared use of this sound. Multiple posts feature pictures of notorious IS figures, including the executioner Mohammed Emwazi, more commonly known in Western media as Jihadi John.
Some show scenes from IS-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria, others include messages screenshotted from the group’s official media outlet.
In one, a masked figure is shown pointing a gun at a prisoner wearing the notorious orange uniform worn by the group’s victims in the execution videos it routinely published at its height.
In effect, TikTok users are able signpost to similar content while avoiding the use of text-based methods such as captions and hashtags that can be more easily monitored by moderators.
Some of the accounts are likely normal people “trying to be edgy”, says Meili Criezis, Program Associate at the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab.
“But there are other accounts that are more purposeful and in the strategy. And so from those accounts, you see a more consistent pattern. You’ll have also a lot of content where the person is trying to disseminate IS propaganda quite purposefully, quite strategically.”
IS nasheeds on TikTok
This example, titled “We Have The Swords,” is far from the only Islamic State Nasheed used as a sound by TikTok users.
One of the most used IS nasheeds viewed by Sky News on TikTok was an edit of “Dawlati Baqiyah.” The song addresses the losses inflicted on IS forces by the US-led coalition in defiant terms.
Thousands of posts used this as a soundtrack before the sound was removed by TikTok.
A recording of Qamat Al Dawla, released by one of the organisation’s official media outlets Ajnad Media Foundation, remains available on the platform, and is attached to 364 videos.
While some posts using it may have been removed by moderators, this sound has remained on TikTok since at least October 2023.
A recording of another nasheed released by Ajnad Media Foundation in 2013 has been available on the platform as a sound since at least October 2021. It was the most popular sound viewed by Sky News.
Attached to over 14,300 videos, its lyrics celebrate the actions of IS fighters, stating “The Islamic State has arisen by the blood of the righteous”.
Unclear motivations of individual users
According to Ms Criezis, regardless of the individual poster’s intent, content using this type of audio can easily lead users to genuine extremist content, as all they have to do is click on a sound and be exposed to straightforwardly pro-IS propaganda.
For extremists, pro-IS nasheeds being reposted by unsuspecting users can likely be understood as a win in itself, according to Ms Criezis. “Sometimes I think they just like the idea of the sound itself being mainstreamed and people not even knowing what it is,” she said.
Moderation is an uphill battle
On the challenge faced by social media networks such as TikTok seeking to censor such content, Ms Criezis described it as an “uphill battle,” largely because IS supporters have proved to be adaptable in responding to censorship.
After Sky News presented its findings to TikTok, the videos were taken down.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “We stand firmly against violent extremism and have banned all of the accounts and content flagged to us. We regularly train our safety teams to detect evolving extremist trends and remove 98% of content found to break rules on promoting terrorism before it is reported to us.”
Additional reporting by Haroun Esmail.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
