From Christian Sceince Monitor:

In the old days, 10 years ago, jihadists vowed death to Western imperialism on audiotapes that couriers smuggled out of mountain hideouts and passed to satellite TV stations.

The next generation of militants has a much simpler way to proselytize: Twitter.

For years, Islamist extremists have struggled to outsmart the censors in online forums — with their videos yanked from YouTube, their pages flagged on Facebook and their message boards hacked — but Twitter still offers a rare unfiltered space for the groups, according to analysts who monitor militants’ online presence

On Twitter, they get more reach to expand their propaganda. They can reach the ‘swing people,’ and try to attract more sympathizers,” said Murad Batal al-Shishani, a London-based researcher of jihadists who’s closely monitored their Twitter feeds for months. He’s written on the subject for the BBC and other media. “They’re focusing on current events — Syria, or supporting a revolution here or there — but they are not using it for operational activity or to communicate among themselves