#Beware

The Fight Against Terror Must Contend With Extremist Propaganda On Social Media Platforms

UNIPATH STAFF

Terrorists no longer hide in the dark corners of the Web in password-protected forums. With a few clicks of the mouse, anyone can follow their tweets, read their posts and watch their propaganda videos.

Just as businesses, governments, celebrities and the everyday Internet savvy are embracing social media to gain loyalty and connect with the world, extremists have also recognized the value of these communication tools and are employing them to achieve their ends.

The migration of extremists onto social media platforms has attracted the attention of security officials and experts who suggest expanding the counter-terrorism fight to include cyber trouble spots. Countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are using these tools to discredit extremist propaganda.

During the January 2013 session of the U.N. Security Council, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar called attention to the exploitation of social media by terrorists. She called for quick-response counterterrorism tactics to prevent extremists from using online communication tools to recruit new members and plan and finance their activities.

“Terrorists’ misleading, distorted and malicious narrative and their demented ideology that justifies the killing of innocent people must be quashed by the international community and the U.N. Security Council,” Khar said in a speech. “It is our responsibility to counter terrorist propaganda. Our stories about human dignity and values should be louder than their criminal sagas. We must move in concert to decrease the ideological space in which terrorists operate freely.”

Examining the evolution
Terrorists’ online footprint has evolved during the past two decades. In the 1990s, terrorists used top-down websites on which leaders controlled content and messages. As time went on, it became clear that the Internet was an important weapon for terrorists. A 2002 letter from Osama bin Laden to Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar reveals why the proliferation of the Internet was becoming integral to operations. “It is obvious that the media war in this century is one of the strongest methods; in fact, its ratio may reach 90 percent of the total preparation for battles,” he wrote.

Since then, the use of social media platforms has not only been sanctioned, but encouraged. Just as many businesses and organizations have embraced social media to accomplish their goals, terrorists groups also are employing these communication strategies to permeate their propaganda as far and as deeply as possible.

By the start of the new century, terrorists began using exclusive interactive Web forums to connect like-minded people to extremist ideology. Terrorist leaders don’t always run these websites, but do shape messaging. Such forums give administrators the power to control information because they can delete conversations and expel users with dissenting opinions. These centralized forums also are password protected, offering users a degree of privacy to discuss tactics and operations. The drawback to the forums is their exclusivity, which limits growth and recruitment because conversations usually take place between like-minded individuals already drawn to extremist ideology.

By harnessing the power of social media, extremists now have a tool that makes up for the shortcomings of forums. Although sites such as Facebook give extremist leaders less control over messages, it allows them to reach broader audiences, according to an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Aaron Zelin who is a Richard Borow fellow. Think of the two platforms like this: Forums are where extremists primarily network and plan. Social media sites are where they sell their ideas to the world.

Present situation
One prominent social media site – YouTube – hosts battlefield videos edited to intertwine rap music and propaganda messages portraying terrorists as warriors rather than criminals.

Facebook acts as a clubhouse, bringing together like-minded extremists who then target a wider audience with deceptive narratives of hate and intolerance.

Twitter serves as an online bulletin board for extremists to send out quick commentary on breaking news events, commentary that often attempts to glorify terrorist attacks or undermine the rule of law.

Each of these social media sites has the power to steer users to content on other platforms. Twitter sends people to YouTube. Facebook sends people to blog posts. When a new social media site is embraced by the masses, extremists inevitably gravitate to it as well.

In December 2012, extremist writer Abdullah Muhammad Mahmud used a WordPress blog to promote the use of Facebook and Twitter as legitimate tools for online extremism.

“This advice was in a sense revolutionary, as [extremists] had previously emphasized the importance of the forums as a method for authenticating materials, to prevent forgeries of official group content,” Zelin wrote in Foreign Policy in February 2013.

Here are some recent examples of terrorists operating on Twitter:

• The head of Al-Andalus, media branch of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, answered questions from the public in April 2013. A few weeks later, a link was posted to a transcript for extremists who may have missed the original interview.
• During 50 days in early 2013 Jabhat al-Nusrah, an arm of al-Qaida in Iraq operating in Syria, posted 76,000 tweets.
• Somali-based terror group al-Shabab began distributing links to its latest propaganda videos in December 2012 via Twitter. By late January 2013, the account had about 20,000 followers and was shut down by Twitter after al-Shabab announced it would kill a French hostage – a violation of Twitter’s policy prohibiting posts promoting violence. By February, experts believe al-Shabab had opened a new Twitter account under a different name.
• Others contend that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and Jabhat al-Nusrah are also active on Facebook, hiding among millions of accounts and avoiding unwanted attention by not using official names such as “al-Qaida.”
• “These organizations are probably targeting the receptive youth who are confused. They can be easily targeted by the militant organizations through their posts, pages and other material to get their sympathies and support [in the form of manpower and donations],” Talat Aslam, a security analyst and senior editor at The News in Karachi, told Central Asia Online.

It has yet to be determined whether the ease of access to extremist material on social media sites will lead to increases in recruitment or if the overall message will become diluted in the vast marketplace of ideas. Regardless of eventual outcomes, officials have already taken action.

Countering propaganda
In Saudi Arabia, Islamic scholars have gone online as credible messengers to counter distortions of Islam propagated by terrorists across the Internet. The Assakina Campaign for Dialogue (www.assakina.com) is a nongovernmental organization supported by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. It has a presence on all the major social media platforms.

In Yemen, military officials are also using soft power to counter extremist influence online. Using its www.26sep.net website and accompanying Facebook page (www.facebook.com/26septembernet), the Yemeni Armed Forces’ Moral Guidance Department provides a credible source of news and information about the country. The website was launched in 2004 and helps instill trust in the military and government as a reliable and trustworthy source of information while countering extremist narratives.

Experts and security officials believe exposing the fallacies of terrorist ideology online will help undermine the adversary’s attempts to recruit, plan and raise money. That’s been the approach of the Pakistani government. Under the Cyber Crimes Act, the Federal Investigation Agency can take action against anyone for misusing social media forums or the Internet in general, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Senior Superintendent Mian Saeed told Central Asia Online. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority blocks websites that promote extremist messages, he said.

Additionally, the government posted videos on YouTube highlighting terrorist attacks on Pakistanis in markets and mosques, showing that terrorists attack the innocent and that supporting their cause means supporting horrific violence.

Beyond government interventions, the public can also make a difference. Social media users can report abuse to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. That’s what happened in December 2012 when someone reported that Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan had a Facebook page and the company deleted the terrorist account.

Citizens are posting messages on social media sites to counter the extremist propaganda. “The better way to condemn the propaganda of militants is to project the softer image of Pakistan and Islam through Twitter, Facebook and other social media forums,” Basharat Malik, a retired Pakistan government employee, told Central Asia Online.

These advocates for peace are posting songs and poems promoting anti-terrorism messages. Some post fatwas that denounce suicide bombing attacks. Others promote interfaith dialogue that helps break down stereotypes and promote religious tolerance.

Said one Pakistani Facebook user: “A single comment can change a mind and scenario.”