The post 9-11 “War on Terror” era is characterized by the parallel ascension of social media. Social media has become a strategic tool to communicate and enact terrorism, thereby revolutionizing its impact. It has also been a key medium in the rise of radicalization and the dissemination of online extremist content around the world. This has offered terrorists groups the unprecedented ability to disseminate images and sentiments at a rapid pace to a borderless audience. While there has always been a relationship between terrorism and traditional media in the forms of print and television, social media networks have given terrorists the ability to have their acts communicated in a more potent and instantaneous way – with a lens that can been distorted by their bias.
By Kajal Saxena
With its ability to circumvent traditional media, social media enables its own access into the lives of billions of people around the world. As of September 2013, 90% of all 18-29 year-olds in the United States (US) used social media, followed by 78% of adults aged 30-49. [1] The direct accessibility to these audiences and the ease of which their attention can be garnered by a few taps on a phone or computer, highlights the possible reach of terrorism propaganda and media. [2] These effects can be felt on multiple levels of society and can serve to reach terrorists’ objectives of disrupting and frustrating state responses, as well as creating serious fear among the global population. In 2013 and 2014 social media networks such as Twitter overtook internet forums as the preferred space for Jihadist propaganda. [3] Jihadi groups are known to use mainstream media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to post their content and create sponsored accounts where they release news statements and videos. [4] The instantaneous nature of social media networks also allow for the immediate, almost real-time viewings of terrorist attacks and their aftermath, which can deliver maximum impact of fear. The 2013 Westgate Mall hostage crisis in Nairobi is an example of how the terrorist group Al-Shabaab used Twitter to narrate their attack while it was occurring and share an alternate perspective to challenge the accounts of those witnessing the terrorist attack from the outside. [5] Al-Shabaab and its supporters were able to garner worldwide mainstream media attention, and broadcasted their attack through engagement on Twitter. [6] Therefore, social media texts and images have become a strategic part of the terrorist attacks as well. [7]
The effects of the borderless flow of terrorist propaganda is reflected in the number of Jihadist terrorist attacks in the Western world, like Canada, France, the US and the United Kingdom (UK). Social media has provided terrorist groups with the infrastructure to evolve their internet presence into meaningful online social communities that engage in the spread of online disinformation worldwide. As cybersecurity security specialist Dr. Maura Conway suggests, “today’s internet does not simply allow for the dissemination and consumption of extremist material in a one-way broadcast from producer and consumer, it also facilitates high levels of online social interaction around this material”. [8]
Internet subcultures allow users to manipulate news frames, set agendas and facilitate the spread of disinformation, while supporting a conducive environment for media manipulation. [9] In the case of the Islamic State’s (IS) online strategy, it was initially used to motivate foreign fighters to join IS campaigns in Syria and Iraq. It also quickly became a way in which social media users contribute to the increase in volume of IS-related content that proliferates websites like Twitter and YouTube. [10] A similar strategy was adopted by right-wing extremist groups online. With a focus on far-right movements and men’s rights activists, ideologically-driven blogs like Infowars and Roosh V’s blog Return of Kings are important online sources of information for the far-right. [11] Forums and message boards like 4chan and 8chan facilitate online social communities of like-minded people who engage with and share extremist messaging and media. Therefore, social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are used by members of the far-right to spread extreme messages to large numbers of people, and also are central platforms to spread misinformation in the form of memes or images. [12] This has created a thriving online community where terrorist groups like IS and right-wing groups use “small teams of social media users to lavish attention on potential recruits and move the conversation to more secure online platforms – therefore, while Twitter may not be the place where recruitment ends, growing evidence suggests that identifiable patterns of recruitment begin on Twitter”. [13] While the far-right movement’s usage of social media networks is relatively understudied by terrorism scholars, it is possible to see patterns with Jihadist terrorist groups in their usage of social media as a tool to communicate and enact terrorism.
Propaganda has always been central in communicating terrorism. Perhaps the most central accomplishment of Al Qaeda on 9/11 was not killing several thousand people, but rather instilling fear in millions of people worldwide through the reports and images of the attacks, and the creating a blueprint for modern terrorist practices. [14] The borderless flow of information enabled by social media has been utilized as a tool by terrorist groups to spread their messages globally, facilitate online social communities and spread fear and disruption. Terrorists have been highly adaptable to changes in how their messages are disseminated around the world. In order to keep pace with the evolution of terrorist strategy, states and social media networks must adapt their counter-terrorism measures to meet these inevitable challenges.
Sources
[1] Sullivan, R. 2014, "Live-tweeting terror: a rhetorical analysis of @HSMPress_ Twitter updates during the 2013 Nairobi hostage crisis", Critical Studies on Terrorism, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 422-433.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Weimann, G.J. 2019, "Competition and Innovation in a Hostile Environment: How Jabhat Al-Nusra and Islamic State Moved to Twitter in 2013-2014", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism: Islamic States Online Activity and Responses, vol. 42, no. 1-2, pp. 25-42.
[4] Klausen, J. 2015, "Tweeting the Jihad: Social Media Networks of Western Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 1-22.
[5] Sullivan, 2014.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Conway, M. 2017, "Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism: Six Suggestions for Progressing Research", Studies in Conflict & Terrorism: Terrorist Online Propaganda and Radicalization, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 77-98.
[9] Marwick, Alice, and Rebecca Lewis. 2017, “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online”. Plaats van uitgave onbekend: Data and Society Research Institute, pp. 1-104
[10] Benigni, M.C., Joseph, K. & Carley, K.M. 2017, "Online extremism and the communities that sustain it: Detecting the ISIS supporting community on Twitter", PloS one, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. e0181405.
[11] Marwick and Lewis, 2017.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Benigni, Kenneth and Carley, 2017.
[14] Seib, P.M., Janbek, D.M. & ProQuest (Firm) 2010, Global terrorism and new media: the post-Al Qaeda generation, Routledge, New York.