Social media has been one of the technological developments of this digital age, with people using this platform for networking with colleagues, hunting for new job opportunities, and staying in touch with family and friends. But terrorist groups, too, have tapped into the power of the Internet, in general, and social media, in particular, to further their agendas in ways that would not have been possible previously. Whether it involves Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or any of a number of social media sites, terrorist groups have proven themselves adept at leveraging the power of social media to recruit and to radicalize, to instill fear on a large scale, and to remain highly visible and relevant. This will be demonstrated by looking at how terrorist groups use social media, by considering how future technology trends might help terrorist groups, and by assessing the threat that future technologies present before considering solutions.
How Terrorists Groups Use Social Media: Recruit & Radicalize
Terrorist groups have been effective at using social media platforms to recruit and to radicalize. For example, CBC News (“Terrorist Groups,” 2012) explains that terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas have turned to social media to recruit new members around the world. Mentioning a recent study by the University of Haifa's Gabriel Weimann, the report cites Weimann as saying that approximately nine-tenths of "organized terrorism" online "is being" conducted "through social media." Weimann adds that terrorist groups, leveraging social media platforms, can proactively recruit followers "without geographical limitations." Weimann further says that terrorist groups not only use social media to make alliances, but also to post video clips. Weimann's findings came on the heels of a 10-year-long study looking into how global terrorism has been making strides on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and other online platforms. In addition to using social media to find new members and to post content, terrorist groups also use such online platforms to gather intelligence on the political and military realms. Case in point: Weimann says that the Governments of Canada and the United Kingdom have ordered their military members to take personal data off of their Facebook profiles just in case terrorist groups are watching. It can be seen that terrorist groups have used social media to further their objectives by recruiting and by radicalizing. And they’ve accomplished these two objectives by using a wide array of social media platforms.
How Future Technology Trends May Help Terrorist Groups: Widespread Fear
Terrorist groups have been adept at using their social media skills to create widespread fear around the world, and future technology trends could help them to do more of the same. Burke (2016) correctly notes that terrorists have used new technologies in order to manufacture their propaganda much more easily than was the case previously -- and this will likely continue. For instance, terrorist groups such as ISIS have used new technologies to distribute "films and images" that graphically depict executions of soldiers, suspected spies, aid workers, and civilians. And the increasing popularity of social media is a trend that could help terrorist groups to advance their agenda even more since they’ll be able to spread their messages to more and more people. Statista (“Leading social networks,” 2016) reports that there were, as of April 2016, about a couple of billion Internet users who are social networks users, and the number is expected to increase "as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction." As of April 2016, says the firm, Facebook had about 1.59 billion active users each month and Instagram had north of 400 million. With the expected increase in the number of people using social media, terrorist groups will potentially be able to get their messages seen by many more people. Carmon and Stalinsky (2015) add that ISIS understands how effective social media can be at communicating its message. For instance, in August 2014, the terrorist group posted a beheading video to YouTube and used Twitter to tweet "graphic" pictures that showed the knife cutting the victim's throat. Many of the tweets, note the authors, went viral. What these sorts of actions do is spread fear around the world since these kinds of barbaric acts, unfathomable to the majority, are captured by video and photos and spread globally.
Encryption is another trend that promises to continue to help terrorist groups to support their agendas. Sheetz (2015) says that encryption, while popular, is only picking up steam since terrorist groups can use it to communicate amongst one another and to disseminate information anonymously. Moreover, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense (2014), in its "Global Strategic Trends - Out to 2045," says that "[t]here could also be an increasing threat of cyberattack from criminals and terrorists as information, communications and critical national infrastructure become more integrated." Such developments would further spread fear as far as is the reach of social media.
Future Technology Threats & Countermeasures: Staying Newsworthy
With each new act of brutality, terrorist groups can use social media to stay newsworthy, which can keep their causes in the spotlight. According to Burke (2016), it is likely that terrorist groups will continue to leverage the power of new technologies that materialize and to make new uses of existing technologies. He says that it’s not out of the realm of possibility to envision violent extremists or perhaps a lone terrorist broadcasting via live-stream format an actual attack as it occurs in real time. Burke mentions an event that happened last September that – while not involving any known terrorist link or motive – shows the threat that future technologies present. In the case Burke references, a female journalist and a male cameraman were murdered by a colleague as they were broadcasting an interview. The gun-wielding colleague utilized a GoPro-type of camera to capture the shooting in real time – then he uploaded a short video of the killings to social media platforms. To their credit, both Facebook and Twitter removed the 56-second video clip. If terrorists were to take the lead of the shooter in this case by using existing or future technology, one counter-measure, albeit a reactive one rather than a proactive one, would be for social media platforms to take decisive and timely actions to remove any such video clips. This might take away one of the incentives of using this tactic – a tactic that can work wonders when considering that the aforementioned 56-second video went viral.
As for possible countermeasures, Perlroth and Isaac (2015) cite Hany Farid, who is the chairman of Dartmouth College’s computer science department, as saying that it’s hard to believe companies like of Twitter that claim that they are unable to do more to block terror-related content. He adds that technology that has successfully gotten rid of much of the child pornography on the Internet shows that more can be done to address the problem of terror content online. McLaughlin (2016) says that the White House in January asked Internet businesses at a counterterrorism meeting to mull over the possibility of employing their technology to locate and gauge radicalization. While the government wants an algorithm, the report notes that many experts believe that it would be impossible to find such a solution.
Conclusion
Terrorists have definitely made effective use of social media to recruit and to radicalize; to spread fear around the world; and to keep their issues newsworthy. To a large extent, they have been successful since efforts to delete social media accounts used to promote terror have been countered by terrorist groups that have simply set up new ones. It is all but certain that terrorist groups will continue to leverage the power of technology to further their aims, so it is remains to be seen whether or not the social media companies, the authorities, and any other agencies can come up with countermeasures that are effective enough to stop the terrorist groups.
Reference List
Burke, J. (2016, February 25). How the Changing Media is Changing Terrorism. The Guardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/how-changing-media-changing-terrorism
Carmon, C., & Stalinsky, S. (2015, January 30). Terrorist Use of U.S. Social Media is a National Security Threat. Forbes. Retrieved from www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/01/30/terrorist-use-of-u-s-social-media-is-a-national-security-threat/#1f9270012d04
Leading social networks worldwide as of April 2016. (2016). Retrieved May 22, 2016, from http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
McLaughlin, J. (2016, January 20). The White House Asked Social Media Companies to Look for Terrorists. Here’s Why They’d #Fail. The Intercept. Retrieved from https://theintercept.com/2016/01/20/the-white-house-asked-social-media-companies-to-look-for-terrorists-heres-why-theyd-fail/
Perlroth, N., & Isaac, M. (2015, December 7). Terrorists Mock Bids to End Use of Social Media. The New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/technology/terrorists-mock-bids-to-end-use-of-social-media.html?_r=0
Sheetz, M. (2015, December 4). The Rise of Tech-Savvy Global Terrorism Networks. CNBC. Retrieved from www.cnbc.com/2015/12/04/the-everyday-technology-helping-terrorists-plot-evil.html
Terrorist groups recruiting through social media. (2012, January 10). Retrieved from www.cbc.ca/news/technology/terrorist-groups-recruiting-through-social-media-1.1131053
