Social Media and Terrorism
Introduction
Social media has greatly improved modern way of life, providing ease of accessing information regarding all aspects of a person’s life. These same benefits and opportunities have been accorded terrorists and terrorist organizations which have mean intentions. The physical barriers that have been overcame by technology through social media, without the barriers of location or time are being utilized by terrorists to streamline their operations and maximize efficiency.
Terrorist activities that have been propagated by social media can be grouped into two categories. The first category is the communication benefit which involves recruitment of potential candidates, creating groups, collaborating with terrorists associates and offering digital training to recruits. In addition, social media offers secrecy and clandestine communication through encryption protocols that are offered by services such as proton mail that offers secure end-end email services and Whatsapp to mention a few. The other category of social media propagated terror activities can be termed as operational digital action (RefBroadhurst, Grabosky, Alazab and Chon, 2014). This involves digital activities organized by terrorists that are meant to instill and spread fear among civilians such as threats. They may also exploit open or restricted source data, holding valuable information in order to blackmail organizations or corporations (McMillan, 2016). Social media has provided the means to digitally and secretly cross border and also recruit potential terrorist from all parts of the world the availability of social forums, WebPages, and email.
Social media has proved to be valuable assets to terror groups revolutionizing operation costs of the organizations. As much social media has presented these groups with advantages, the same advantages can be utilized and used against them as counter measures to slow them down. The interactive and nature of social media is one of the major tools that should used to deliver counter attacks to these terrorist groups (McMillan, 2016). Platforms such as twitter and Facebook provide the perfect environment of exchange between the transmitter and the intended audiences and should be used effectively to gun down the terrorists groups.
Agents should be placed strategically in various social media platforms and social groups with the intention of monitoring what goes on in these social environments. These social media platforms should be used as tools of obtaining intelligence and conducting digital counter attacks against the terrorist groups (Conway, 2005). Communication advantages offered by global digitalization should be utilized by government and non-government agencies to counter-violent terrorist groups.
Agencies such as community relation service (CRS) which is one of the arms of the US department of justice is one of the agencies that should be employed to investigate and hunt down these hate sites. In time s of war, information is vital and agencies such as CRS, in conjunction with the police, mayor, governors, local administrators and the civilian public are also essential in curbing terrorist activities (RefBroadhurst, et al 2014). Agencies such as the one named above, cannot work alone since they do not have any law enforcement authority and hence cannot impose solutions. Also, they are required by law to conduct their business in confidentially, without disclosing their information.
Conclusion
It is undisputable that digital advancement has revolutionized social platforms, thus offering new environments and reliable environments for terrorism groups to conduct their operations. Without the barriers of time or physical location, social media has eased communication around the globe to the advantage of terror groups. It is these same social environments that agencies should use to stop these terror groups from spreading hate speech and threatening the public.
References
Conway, M. (2005, 8-10 September). Terrorism ‘Use’ and the Internet Fighting Back. Conference Paper: Cybersafety: Safety and Security in a Networked World: Balancing Cyber-Rights and Responsibilities. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahU KEwj8yczw1cLNAhUMMY8KHfGFAzAQFggeMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. oii.ox.ac.uk%2Fresearch%2Fcybersafety%2Fextensions%2Fpdfs%2Fpapers%2Fmaur a_conway.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGsB3-g-clxKhAdsL0Y3qHmCRdCeg
McMillan, R. (2016, 5 April). Facebook’s WhatsApp Launches ‘End-to-End’ Encryption. WhatsApp texting service strengthens encryption so only sender and receiver can read message contents. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-whatsappturns-on-encryption-by-default-145986909
RefBroadhurst, R., Grabosky, P., Alazab, M. and Chon, S. (2014). Organizations and Cyber crime: An Analysis of the Nature of Groups engaged in Cyber Crime. International Journal of Cyber Criminology. Volume 8, issue 1, pp. 1 -20. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1545341663?rfr_id=info%3A xri%2Fsid%3Aprimoerences
