ITSTIME speeches at the VOX-Pol online seminar “Under the Radar: Understanding the Salafi-Jihadi terrorist online information ecosystem” (Part 3)
On December 3, our analysts Alessandro Bolpagni, Eleonora Ristuccia, and Grazia Ludovica Giardini took part in the online seminar organised by VOX-Pol. This online seminar examined the structure and evolution of the contemporary Salafi-jihadi terrorist information ecosystem. It will focus on how violent extremist organisations, such as the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda (AQ), exploit mainstream social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram. The seminar will explore the scale of activity carried out by “media mujahideen” within these environments and analyse the strategies they use to enhance the resonance of their messaging among target audiences. In addition, speakers addressed the role of Ansar media and unaffiliated supporters in conducting media jihad on behalf of these groups. Special attention will be given to explaining the continued presence of Salafi-jihadi actors on mainstream platforms, including the evasive tactics they commonly employ, believing it helps them to bypass content moderation.
In this presentation, the authors delved into the analysis of what they described as the Gaming-Jihad propaganda produced by pro-IS users. Specifically, they showed how pro-IS users are exploiting Discord and Roblox to play and create/reproduce IS propaganda material, to later share it on TikTok. In recent years, gaming platforms have witnessed the rise of young individuals playing and declaring intentions of committing violent terrorist attacks. This phenomenon was also addressed by Europol, which, on November 13, 2025, carried out a referral action operation and removed more than 5,000 links to Salafi-Jihadi propaganda. Moreover, Europol underlines how users create propaganda on gaming platforms and then enrich it through audiovisual elements related to Salafi-Jihadi propaganda. Overall, if, on the one hand, gaming platforms are used to produce propaganda, on the other hand, they need a platform to share their content. Among social media, TikTok stands as the perfect social network to welcome this type of propaganda, thanks to its young audience and because it offers several editing tools.
In recent months, the authors collected more than 270 accounts on TikTok active in sharing pro-IS propaganda material. Using them as ‘seed accounts’, they re-create a pro-IS network on TikTok of more than 101,000 users. Within this network, they identified a section composed of users completely dedicated to sharing Gaming-Jihad propaganda (Figure 1).
Moreover, based on content analysis, they classified 15 different account categories, among which stands the Gaming-Jihad account category. This category comprises users who focus on creating and/or reproducing IS propaganda material by exploiting features provided by gaming platforms. In Figure 2, you can observe some examples.
By means of monitoring the Gaming-Jihad pro-IS propaganda on TikTok, it was possible to detect several TikTok accounts dedicated to the dissemination of pro-IS gaming propaganda on the platform itself. Also, most of them appeared to be related to Discord servers, whose outlink were shared directly in the ‘bio’ section of the affiliated TikTok accounts. Accordingly, the pro-IS Discord servers have been monitored and analysed in terms of their shape and functioning. They appear to be divided into several thematic channels and subchannels, most of which are dedicated to the creation and discussion of propaganda making. The latter were seen to be produced by means of exploiting Roblox sandboxes, highlighting a further correlation between the two platforms. In fact, the communitarian space provided by Discord is strengthened thanks to the development of Roblox communities affiliated with the pro-IS Discord servers. Therefore, the three platforms appear to be interconnected and correlated as far as the production and dissemination of pro-IS gaming propaganda is concerned.
The process behind the production of Gaming-Jihad propaganda was described by the author through the metaphor of a supply chain (Figure 3). Users gather into Discord servers – the Management and Logistics – to coordinate themselves and play on Roblox’s sandboxes – the Creative Factory. Following that, they go back on Discord servers – the Management and Logistics – and later share the material on TikTok – the Market Place. In Figure 4, you can see some examples of the production or recreation of IS material.
Within the so-called ‘TikTok marketplace’, the gaming propaganda is shared using several features provided by the platform itself, such as canonical TikTok posts, photo carousel, videos, and 24-hour stories (Figure 5).
Hence, hashtags are used in order to maximise the reaching degree, by means of combining words and sentences related to the gaming experience and textual elements related to the Salafi-jihadi imagery.
Furthermore, Discord functions as an efficient interactional hub. Considering the possibility of having real-time conversations and sharing gameplay experiences, Discord allows people to build a communitarian environment among individuals, resulting in a forum-like structure. Given the structure in which Discord servers are organised, a particular type of dichotomy was detected. On one hand, it is possible to observe the presence of channels and/or subchannels dedicated to the dissemination of audiovisual material related to the Salafi-jihadi ideology, theological matters, and actual pro-IS institutional propaganda frames. On the other hand, there are channels and subchannels focused on the sharing of memes and content, which, from an ideological point of view, distance themselves from the canonical jihadist ideology and symbolism. Often crossing the so-called halal-haram line.
To conclude, based on what the authors have observed, they have elaborated what they described as the ‘TikTok-Discord-Roblox Propaganda Triangulation’, wherein TikTok serves as an entry-point for the IS online ecosystem and Discord and Roblox as a starting point for the radicalisation process. In Figure 6, you can obseve an example of a Discord server having a TikTok account and a community on Roblox. In the first case, as underlined by rebuilding a pro-IS network on TikTok, the Gaming-Jihad account category’s users can interact with other pro-IS users and get outlinks that lead them to the core platforms of the IS online ecosystem. In the second case, as shown by several arrests occurred in recent years, Discord and Roblox are a radicalisation starting point for young individuals.
