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Episode details

World Service,21 Jun 2014,17 mins

Iraqi Insurgents’ Twitter App

Trending

Available for over a year

This week the Trending team finds out how ISIS, the Iraqi insurgents who recently took over vast territories in Iraq, have been using hashtags, apps and more social media tricks to amplify their message and gain global support. Despite internet blocks by the government we connect with an Iraqi blogger in Baghdad, and we speak to an American expert in the use of social media by militant groups. And in China dissident artist Ai Weiwei has kick started a picture trend on Instagram that’s seen hundreds of people holding their legs up like guns. But there’s more to this than just playful images. We find out what the #LegGun trend is really about. Presenter Mukul Devichand is joined in the Trending studio by BBC Monitoring’s Amira Fathallah and from Singapore by Heather Chen from BBC News Asia.

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