SOCIAL TERRORISM

Terror groups take to social media because it’s cheap, accessible, and facilitates quick to a lot of
people. Social media allow them to engage with their networks. In the past it wasn’t so easy for
these groups to engage with the people they wanted to whereas social media allows terrorists to
release their messages right to their intended audience and interact with them in real time. "Spend
some time following the account, and you realize that you’re dealing with a real human being with
real ideas- albeit boastful, hypocritical, violent ideas".Al- Qaeda has been noted as being as being
one of the terror groups that uses social media the most extensively.
Terror groups take to social media because social media tools are cheap and accessible, facilitate
quick, broad dissemination of messages, and allow for unfettered communication with an audience
without the filter or "selectivity" of mainstream news outlets. Also, social media platforms allow terror
groups to engage with their networks. Whereas previously terror groups would release messages via
intermediaries, social media platforms allow terror groups to release messages directly to their
intended audience and converse with their audience in real time: Weimann also mentions in
"Theater of Terror", that terrorists use the media to promote the theatrical like nature of the
premeditated terror.
HSMPress is using Twitter the way social media experts have always advised- not just broadcasting,
but engaging in conversation. Spend some time following the account, and you realize that you're
dealing with a real human being with real ideas—albeit boastful, hypocritical, violent ideas. [12]

Terror groups using social media

Al-Qaeda has been noted as being one of the terror groups that uses social media the most
extensively. Brian Jenkins, senior advisor for the Rand Corporation, commented on Al-Qaeda's
dominant presence on the web:
While almost all terrorist organizations have websites, al Qaeda is the first to fully exploit the
internet. This reflects al Qaeda's unique characteristics. It regards itself as a global movement and
therefore depends on a global communications network to reach its perceived constituents. It sees
its mission as not simply creating terror among its foes but awakening the Muslim community. Its
leaders view communications as 90 percent of the struggle.. The number of websites devoted to the
al Qaeda-inspired movement has grown from a handful to reportedly thousands, although many of
these are ephemeral.
According to Rob Wainwright, author of "Fighting Crime and Terrorism in the Age of Technology," in
order for ISIS to spread its message, they have utilized more than one hundred sites. This shows
how vastly social media is used by terrorist groups. Known terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant, also translated to ISIS, uses the widespread of news over social media to their
advantage when releasing threatening videos of beheadings. As of November 16, 2014, following
the beheading of former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig, there have now been five recorded
executions of Westerners taken captive in Syria. James Foley, David Cawthorne Haines, Alan
Henning, and Steven Sotloff are also among the men kidnapped and executed by ISIS. The videos
of the brutal beheadings are both posted online by ISIS, where they can be viewed by anyone using
their own discretion, and sent to government officials as threats. Posting the executions online gives
the terrorist groups the power to manipulate viewers and cause havoc among the population viewing
them, and the videos have the ability to instill fear within the Western world. The videos are typically
high production quality and generally show the entirety of the gruesome act, with the hostage
speaking a few words before they are killed on camera.
In the case of U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, his video did not show the actual beheading act and he
did not speak any final words before the execution. His silence and the fact that the actual execution
was not included in the video raised question about his video was different than the rest.
In addition to beheading videos, ISIS has released videos of their members doing nonviolent acts.
For example, Imran Awan described one such instance in his article "Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the
Power of Social Media" where one video showed members of the Islamic State were seen helping
people and visiting hospitals. These videos gave a humanistic nature to the terrorist group members,
therefore, contradicting what civilians think terrorist groups should be.
Edgar Jones has mentioned in his article, "The Reception of Broadcast Terrorism: Recruitment and
Radicalisation," that ISIS has utilized documentaries and even their own magazine, Dabiq , in order
to recruit new members and to get their message out to the public .This illustrates just a couple of
the various mediums that ISIS has used.
According to Wainwright, social media is also used by ISIS and other terror groups to recruit foreign
people to join the terrorist cause. In some cases, these new recruits are sent back to their home
country to carry out terrorist attacks. This exhibits how ISIS can brainwash or expand on ideas that
individuals may have.
The Taliban has been active on Twitter since May 2011, and has more than 7,000 followers.
Tweeting under the handle @alemarahweb, the Taliban tweets frequently, on some days nearly
hourly. This account is currently suspended
In December 2011, it was discovered that the Somalia-based terror cell Al-Shabab was using a
Twitter account under the name @HSMPressSince opening on December 7, 2011, the account has
amassed tens of thousands of followers and tweets frequently.[21]
Shortly after a series of coordinated Christmas bombings in Kono, Nigeria, in 2011, the Nigerian-
based terror group Boko Haram released a video statement defending their actions to
YouTube. Boko Haram has also used Twitter to voice their opinions.

AQAP and Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/DAESH)

Islamic State has emerged as one of the most potent users of social media. In many respects,
Islamic State learned their propaganda craft from al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
However, IS quickly eclipsed its mentor, deploying a whole range of narratives, images and political
proselytizing through various social media platforms. A study by Berger and Morgan estimated that
at least 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by ISIS supporters between September and December
2014.[] However, as ISIS supporters regularly get suspended and then easily create new, duplicate
accounts, counting ISIS Twitter accounts over a few months can overestimate the number of unique
people represented by 20–30%.
However, as the November 2015 attacks in Paris demonstrate, IS also uses old-fashioned methods
of communication and propaganda. Lewis notes that the attacks in Paris represent the sort of
'propaganda in action' which was a method developed by the 19th century anarchists in Europe. The
November 2015 IS attacks were perpetrated without prior warning, largely because the operatives
met face-to-face and used other non-digital means of communication. [
Attempts to
thwart the use of social media by terror groups
Some U.S. government officials have urged social media companies to stop hosting content from
terror groups. In particular, Joe Lieberman has been especially vocal in demanding that social media
companies not permit terror groups to use their tools. In 2008, Lieberman and the United States
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs issued a report titled "Violent
Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat". The report stated that the
internet is one of the "primary drivers" of the terrorist threat to the United States.
In response to the news that Al-Shabab was using Twitter, U.S. officials have called for the company
to shut down the account. Twitter executives have not complied with these demands and have
declined to comment on the case.
In January 2012, Twitter announced changes to their censorship policy, stating that they would now
be censoring tweets in certain countries when the tweets risked breaking the local laws of that
country. The reason behind the move was stated on their website as follows:
As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the
contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to
exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content,
such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.Until now, the only way we could take
account of those countries' limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves
the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available
in the rest of the world
The move drew criticism from many Twitter users who said the move was an affront to free
speech. Many of the users threatened to quit tweeting if the policy was not rescinded, including
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. In December 2010, in response to growing demands that
YouTube pull video content from terrorist groups from its servers, the company added a "promotes
terrorism" option under the "violent or repulsive content" category that viewers can select to "flag"
offensive content. By limiting the terrorists access to conventional mass media and censoring news
coverage of terrorist acts and their perpetrators and also minimising the terrorists allowance to
manipulate mass media, the mass fear impact that is usually created will decrease.
Policy relevance and implications

 The UK counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST currently focuses on the four strands

of ‘Prepare, Protect, Prevent and Pursue’, but should also include a fifth ‘P’ for ‘Post-incident
consequence management’ - including measures to more effectively manage secondary
attacks, community tensions, hate crimes and public reassurance.

 There is a need to improve strategic communications capacity and capability in the

initial response phase to inform the public about what is actually happening, in order to
counteract rumours and conspiracy theories.

 Social media means that the community impacts of terrorist attacks are more
widespread and longer-lasting. Longer-term community impact management strategies
should be developed, encompassing different agencies.
 Traditional ‘big data’ science statistical methods can be misleading in terms of how
and why events are unfolding after major terrorist incidents, due to the complex conflict and
information dynamics. Theory-driven methods of data analysis need to be urgently
developed to realise the potential of social media analytics.