Terror group loses credibility as online propaganda fails

Al-Qaeda’s online propaganda efforts have increasingly fallen flat, causing the group to lose credibility among communities and its own supporters.

Despite attempts to expand its messaging on social media, its online campaigns have failed as people grow more aware of the group’s deception.

Analysts attribute this failure to widespread public mistrust and the organization’s repeated defeats both on the battlefield and in the digital space.

Abdul Qadir Ahmadi, an international relations analyst in Herat, said al-Qaeda misled people for years through ideological and terrorist content online, but such messaging no longer convinces anyone.

"With rising public awareness and literacy, people understand al-Qaeda’s deception and false propaganda and don't trust it," he said.

"Al-Qaeda has failed and become discouraged in spreading its messages and goals through virtual space," he added.

Ahmadi said that the group’s reduced online presence reflects its declining influence.

"Because al-Qaeda’s online propaganda no longer influences communities, the group’s activity on social media has significantly decreased. This failure reflects the weakness and decline of al-Qaeda’s propaganda apparatus," he said.

Ahamdi said that this erosion of trust is causing the organization to collapse from within.

A noticeable silence has followed since the killing of former leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2022 in Kabul, a turning point analysts say intensified internal ideological divisions and deepened the crisis within the network.

Discredited beliefs

As al-Qaeda’s influence diminishes, its corrupted belief system has become more visible, and more widely rejected.

Religious scholars and political analysts say increasing public awareness has stripped away the group’s ability to manipulate communities through online messaging.

Feda Muhammad Muhammadi, a religious scholar in Badghis province, said al-Qaeda’s actions have exposed its ideology as fundamentally un-Islamic.

"The ideological system al-Qaeda created to sustain itself has no connection to Islam and is entirely invalid," he said.

He said that although some people previously fell for al-Qaeda’s messaging, particularly those with limited education, growing awareness across Islamic societies has now led to a broad rejection of the group’s doctrines.

Muhammadi added that most people no longer pay attention to al-Qaeda’s ideological or terrorist messages, which have lost their effect entirely.

Formerly influenced communities have awakened and moved away from the group, said political analyst Hasibullah Sangar.

"For many years, al-Qaeda’s beliefs had taken root like a cancer in parts of some Islamic societies," he said.

The group exploited ignorance to push its agenda, he added.

"In recent years people have clearly understood al-Qaeda’s un-Islamic actions and no longer believe its propaganda," Sangar said.

"Islamic societies are awakening day by day, and the distance between them and al-Qaeda is widening," Sangar said.