It’s almost like they are mocking Obama’s hashtag diplomacy.
Via Daily Mail:
Islamic State supporters are using U.S. hostage Steven Sotloff as brutal fodder in a Twitter campaign which hijacks trending topics with the message #StevensHeadinObamasHands.
The TIME reporter was paraded in an orange jumpsuit in the same video which featured the murder of James Foley, the U.S. journalist who was abducted in Syria in 2012 and beheaded.
Now Arabic-speaking extremists are attaching Mr Sotloff’s face to a string of barbaric English-language ‘memes’ in what appears to be a direct appeal to Western citizens.
Islamic State supporters have spread the messages in tweets which mention completely unrelated topics in pop culture.
They have included #AskRicky, through which fans of Youtube ‘vlogger’ Ricky Dillon could pose him questions, and #FetusUANDay, where fans of the boy band One Direction examined how much they had changed since their 2011 album Up All Night.
Others have included #NapaEarthquake and #camcam, in which fans of another Youtube celebrity Cameron Dallas post their pictures with him.
Experts say the use of U.S. pop culture – despite being against the extreme interpretation of Sharia law enforced by the militants – encourages Western teenagers to click on the messages and spread them further.