How Are Terrorists Using the Internet to Spread Their
Message of Hate? Part 3
By Robert Kaye
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| Photo Credit: frontpagemag.com |
Last night on Facebook, I was chatting with my cousin and a few other friends.
But did you know that at the same time on Facebook, al-Qaeda’s English language online magazine, “Inspire,” reran an article on how to make a bomb in an everyday kitchen? On Twitter, ISIS tweeted photos of Christian captives it had crucified and beheaded. And on YouTube, a newly posted video showed Palestinians dancing in the street and distributing candies in celebration of the recent terrorist attack that murdered four rabbis and a border policeman in Jerusalem.
But did you know that at the same time on Facebook, al-Qaeda’s English language online magazine, “Inspire,” reran an article on how to make a bomb in an everyday kitchen? On Twitter, ISIS tweeted photos of Christian captives it had crucified and beheaded. And on YouTube, a newly posted video showed Palestinians dancing in the street and distributing candies in celebration of the recent terrorist attack that murdered four rabbis and a border policeman in Jerusalem.
Of course, terrorists’ use of the Internet isn’t new. As I’d pointed out in this series’ previous
blogs, “How Are Terrorists Using the
Internet to Spread Their Message of Hate,” and “’IT’ Now Stands for Internet
Terrorism,” numerous terrorist groups, both jihadi -based (such as
Al-Qaeda, Boko Harum, IS, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc.) and others have been online
for over two decades.
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| Photo Credit: counterjihadreport.com |
“Today we are looking at over 9,800 terrorist websites on
top of all the social media from Instagram and Flickr and YouTube and Twitter
and Facebook and so on,” says Dr. Gabriel Weinmann, an international expert,
consultant and author on terrorism and the Internet. In his report for the U.S.' Wilson Center, entitled "New Terrorism, New Media" he writes: “The meteoric rise of
social media has let radical groups and terrorists freely disseminate ideas
through multiple modalities, including websites, blogs, social networking
websites, forums, and video-sharing services.”
Terrorist groups, seeking an even more ubiquitous online presence, have
turned to the burgeoning brave new cyberworld of social media. This platform differs from traditional online
sites by providing terrorists:
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| Photo Credit: youtube.com |
- Interactivity
- Reach
- Frequency
- Usability
- Immediacy
- Permanence
- Self-Recruitment
Networking on social media allows terrorists to actively
contact their intended target audiences.
This is in contrast to older website design/function where a static
nexus website had to be found and visited by visitors. The number of social media sites that terrorists are
using is extensive: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest , Google+
and others. Because the Internet provides an anonymous
screen behind which to operate, it makes perfect sense that terrorists would
use these ubiquitous and popular social media sites.
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| Photo Credit: wilsoncenter.org |
Straight from Today’s Headlines
On November 17th, in an article entitled “Virginia Woman
Accused of Attempting to Aid Islamic State, the “Washington Post” reported: “… The case seems to be another example of the Islamic
State’s robust presence on social media and the influence it is
having on Americans. Two months ago, a 19-year-old from suburban Denver pleaded
guilty to trying to help the terrorist organization after she
tried to board a flight to reach Turkey.
She reportedly was trying to connect with a man she met online. And last month, three
teenage girls from the Denver area were detained at an airport in Germany and
questioned about possibly trying to join the Islamic State … ”
And from a report just issued recently: "Support for IS higher in Europe, US than Syria and Iraq."
And from a report just issued recently: "Support for IS higher in Europe, US than Syria and Iraq."
Terrorism on Facebook
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| Photo Credit: wilsoncenter.org |
Facebook, the largest online social network, has become a
beehive of activity for jihadist terrorist organizations. The call for terrorist groups to embrace and utilize social
media platforms was outlined in an online jihadi forum calling for a “Facebook
Invasion” with the hope to “mislead the American people, and second, to reach
the vast people’s base among Muslims.”
Excerpt: “Facebook is a great idea, and better than the
forums. This post is a seed and a beginning, to be followed by serious efforts
to optimize our Facebook usage. Let’s start distributing Islamic jihadi
publications, posts, articles, and pictures.”
Today, Facebook is frequently used as a platform to share
operational and tactical information, as a gateway to extremist sites and
forums, as an outlet for propaganda and extremist ideological messaging, and
for conducting remote reconnaissance. A special report by the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed various terrorist uses of Facebook:
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| Photo Credit: wilsoncenter.org |
- As a way to share operational and tactical information, such as bomb recipes, weapon maintenance and use, tactical shooting, etc.
- As a gateway to extremist sites and other online radical
content by linking
on Facebook group pages and in discussion forums.
- As a media outlet for terrorist propaganda and extremist ideological messaging.
- As a wealth of information for remote reconnaissance for targeting purposes.
There is an abundancy of radical content and terrorist
propaganda on Facebook. Jihadists are
also using Facebook’s group discussion forums, and wall posts to link radical
forums, media sites for extremist groups, and pages inciting recruitment. Several Islamist radical forums have their
own Facebook pages, which facilitate navigation between the various sites. In so doing, Facebook has become a
well-traversed gateway for increased radicalization that facilitates access to
sites where military action and even how-to weapon creation is posted.
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| Photo Credit: talkradionews.com |
According to Dr. Weinmann’s Wilson Center report, two types
of Facebook pages with terrorist content can be identified: official and
unofficial:
“Official pages are often introduced with a statement by the
sponsoring group, which also has other internet forums and media. An example is the ‘Al-Thabaat’ page, emerging
on Facebook on May 5, 2013, and describing itself in the ‘About’ sectionstraightforwardly as ‘Jihadi page for the group, ‘Ansar al-Islam.’
“Unofficial pages, by contrast, are mostly maintained by
sympathizers who disseminate propaganda or instructional material. For example, jihadists allegedly supporting
the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant launched a website-based encryption
program called ‘Asrar al-Ghurabaa’ (a.k.a., Secrets of the Strangers), which
users can utilize to securely communicate.”
Terrorism on Twitter
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| Photo Credit: wilsoncenter.org |
Terrorists use Twitter to disseminate propaganda and
facilitate internal communication.
Terrorist use of Twitter takes advantage of a recent trend in news
coverage that often sacrifices validation and in-depth analysis for the sake of
near real-time coverage and sensationalist headlines (a trend that Hamas
effectively exploited this past summer during Operation Protective Edge). Under
these conditions, especially if there are few options for obtaining legitimate
information ― let alone verifying it from multiple sources ― mainstream media
takes tweets and broadcasts them as legitimate news sources.
Communicating with sympathizers is also effectively achieved
by posting on Twitter. An examination of
76,000 tweets by the al-Qaeda–related al-Nusra Front in Syria revealed that
they contained more than 34,000 links, many leading to other jihadist content.
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| Photo Credit: redflagnews.com |
According to a “Washington Post” article on June 24th, “Iraq and ISIS: Waging War with
Hashtags”: “ISIS has used online propaganda to devastating effect,
but rather than using a single unified hashtag to deliver its message, the
group has instead hijacked other hashtags, including those used by World
Cup fans. By using hashtags like #Brazil2014 and #WC2014, ISIS has flooded
feeds on Twitter and other social media with recruiting images specifically
curtailed to the West. Its well-produced videos, images and well-tuned
Photoshop skills have allowed it to seem relatable , and at times even comical,
to the West.”
ISIS’ use of the World Cup and Ebola hashtags to insert its
message into wider news feeds, and its ability to send 40,000 tweets a day
during the advance on Mosul without triggering spam controls, illustrates ISIS’ easy manipulation of this new media.
Terrorism on YouTube
The gigantic video-sharing service has become a significant
platform for jihadist groups and supporters, fostering a robust subculture that
uses it as a media-rich communications platform to disseminate propaganda for
inspiration and recruitment. YouTube
especially appeals to usage by terrorist organizations because it’s:
- Eye-catching, featuring moving and/or still images and audio
- Much easier to locate (no knowledge of Arabic or a high level of Internet literacy necessary)
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| Photo Credit: wilsoncenter.org |
- Very appealing to young people
- Easy to copy and disseminate videos (via email links, downloads, and also copying to VHS, CDs, DVDs, and mobile devices)
Rita Katz and Josh Devon, co-founders of the terrorist
watchdog SITE Institute, feel that YouTube’s massive global audience ensures
jihadists can simultaneously aim at both potential terrorist recruits and
targets. “As important as the videos themselves
is YouTube’s usefulness in facilitating social networking among jihadists . The ability to exchange comments about videos
and to send private messages to other users help jihadists identify each other
rapidly, resulting in a vibrant jihadist virtual community.”
YouTube videos (in addition to postings on Facebook) are
used to instruct and inspire jihadists and would-be jihadists on the use of
explosives and other weapons. It directs followers to additional instructional
websites, promote hacking techniques, share encryption programs, and inspire
lone wolf attacks. These postmodern terrorists train in virtual online camps on
how to effectively use the rich variety of new social media and online
multimedia. The videos they post of themselves attacking towns, firing weapons,
torturing prisoners, or detonating explosives have a self-conscious online
game-like quality.
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| Photo Credit: wilsoncenter.org |
In its article, “Iraq and ISIS: Waging War with
Hashtags,” the “Washington Post” states: “… ISIS’s propaganda videos
are also a spectacle. Gone are the
grainy images of yesteryear where masked men jumped over oddly placed obstacles
and played on monkey bars for no reason. ISIS appears to have adopted
the use of small high-definition video cameras, of the likes adorned on
soldiers’ helmets in Afghanistan, as well as professional production values
to elevate propaganda video to 21st-century standards. The beginning
of their newest video, ‘Clanging of the Swords IV,’ even features scenes shot
from a small drone mounted with an HD camera, giving viewers a bird’s eye
view of Anbar province under ISIS reign.”
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| Photo Credit: YouTube.com |
Terrorism on Instagram and Flickr
Although Instagram and Flickr have reputations primarily for being trendy-but-casual ways to share photos with friends and strangers, terrorists have also adopted these photo-sharing services. Online jihadists have flooded Instagram with radical propaganda glorifying such terrorist masterminds as Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. On Flickr, a virtual monument was created for foreign fighters killed in Syria, featuring their name, origin, and remarks admiring their devoutness and combat strength. A major goal of this propaganda is to encourage more alienated Muslims to join the fight. Gruesome pictures of the beheading or shooting of hostages, as well as the bloody faces of slain terrorist “martyrs” can also be freely accessed on these pages, as was reported by MEMRI’s account of “Almurbati1” and other jihadist terrorists postings.
The problem for governments and authorities is that
terrorists have already been using social networks for years — and they know
what they’re doing. "The most
advanced of Western communication technology is, paradoxically, what the terror
organizations are now using to fight the West," Weinmann points out.
Think about it: the Islamic terrorists are using 21st century technology invented by the West to subvert the world into regressing into an 8th century, fundamentalist Islamic ideology/caliphate.
Think about it: the Islamic terrorists are using 21st century technology invented by the West to subvert the world into regressing into an 8th century, fundamentalist Islamic ideology/caliphate.
As I asserted in the first article of this series, we’re at
war. Still dubious? Here’s a recent tweet from ISIS:
“This is a message for every American citizen. You are the target of every Muslim in the world wherever you are.”
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This third segment on Internet Terrorism talks about terrorist organizations’ shift towards employing and
their expertise in social media. Using multiple modalities such as
tweets, blogs, social networking websites, videos, photo-sharing
sites, and forums and chatrooms, I explained how jihadist terror groups in particular have learned to
utilize social media outlets very effectively. I then gave specific examples of
how these groups are using major social media sites, including Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube and others.
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Robert Kaye is an internationally published,
multi-award-winning writer and editor.
To date, he’s been published over 450 times in numerous print and
electronic media (Internet, TV, radio, and podcasts) covering a wide variety of
subjects. He currently serves as the Associate Producer for Working
the Web to Win.
The gates of hell have been thrown wide open. Any kind of mania or stupidity can be broadcast from one end of this world to the other. And end it might be. Who ever thought anything as benign as twitter would be used to unleash the forces of evil. We've sacrificed a lot for the so-called convenience of computers and the internet.
ReplyDeleteVery eye opening article. In the daily hustle of everyday life, I don't think most people think about this. I know I didn't. Hopefully we can use this information to help continue keep us safe and ahead of the situation.
ReplyDeleteYour right, its our responsibility to thoughtfully manage such a powerful asset. We have a world with almost 8 billion people. Some will always use power tools for evil.
ReplyDelete