ISISちゃんISISchan≠ISIL #ISIS_chan is personification character to disturb the propaganda of ISIS through google bombing. It's not what ISIS currently is, but it's what ISIS should be. ISIL ISIS Deash https://twitter.com/isisvipper
Meet the unlikely weapon against Islamic State: ISIS-chan, a 19-year-old Japanese female superhero in a skimpy black jihadi outfit and armed with a melon.
Rarely without her fruit knife (in place of a militant machete) the cheerful manga cartoon is taking on Isis’s online propaganda machine. “Knives are for cutting melons,” is her battle cry.
By flooding the web with images of the peaceful ISIS-chan and her smiley melon, the collective of Japanese activists who created her are playing with the algorithms in Google that determine search rankings.
The more popular an image the higher up it shows. Called google-bombing, if enough people draw and share their own ISIS-chan they will push violent pictures of the global terror group off the internet.
An anonymous group called ISIS Vipper launched the idea on Japan’s largest internet forum 2Channel after Isis fighters beheaded the Japanese citizens Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto in January.
An ISIS-chan activist, known as Gen Knoxx, helps Vipper sell merchandise at no profit. They are not interested in making money out of the symbol. “It gives people a way to do something about Isis. And by photoshopping their media images, it is (hopefully) possible to lessen their impact,” Gen Knoxx told The Times.
Isis Vipper said it had inspired more than 3,000 images already, mostly from Asia and it had started to catch on in Europe and the United States.
Isis uses the internet to connect potential jihadists to recruiters and to share videos of their killings. They have posted footage of their victims being drowned in cages, blasted with rocket-propelled grenades and strung together with explosive necklaces. They also frequently release video of militants destroying heritage sites.
Vipper activists hope photos of beheadings, burnings, bombings and black flags, will be replaced by hundreds of pictures of ISIS-chan. The group said: “It’s kind of a hard challenge to consider a group serious if the first thing you find is a cute little anime girl when you google them. Terror is hard to pull off then.”
Anyone can create their own version of the bizarre melon-loving girl, provided they follow the guidelines. ISIS-chan cartoonists must not insult Islam, use Koranic texts, or mock the Prophet Muhammad. They have to respect the hostages who have been taken and cannot promote violence or pornography.
There are guidelines for her look too: ISIS-chan wears the black jihadi outfit favoured by militants. She is just 4ft 9in, has short black hair, “greenish eyes” and a “relatively big” bust.
It follows other attempts to use humour to fight Isis’s online campaign. @IsisKaraoke Twitter account tweets photos of Isis militants addressing crowds to its 42,000 followers, accompanied by song lyrics.
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