Earlier this month, internet activist group Anonymous "declared war" on terrorism group ISIS. Which was all well and good, but what were a group consisting largely of bedroom-bound fedora wearers going to achieve against a group of highly organised extremists?
Rickrolling, apparently.
The tactic is a simple one: by bombarding ISIS-related accounts and internet sites with links purporting to provide information on ISIS's cause under the #SupportISIS hashtag, supporters are unwittingly taken to Rick Astley's 1987 smash, Never Gonna Give You Up. The popular spam distraction was chosen after the group ran a Twitter poll.
As to whether the Rickrolling strategy will have any impact on ISIS's social media strategy or recruitment drive is unclear: Anonymous claims it's disrupted and deleted over 30,000 accounts associated with the extremist terrorism group.
Effective disruption or childish retorts - at least it's allowing some people to feel like they're getting involved against a largely faceless terrorism threat.
You can find out more about Anonymous and their war on ISIS here.
