Counter-Terrorism Propaganda on Social Media - Research Paper Example

Name Instructor Course Date Counter Terrorism Propaganda on Social Media Definition of Terms Terrorism is the use of intimidation of violence in the pursuit of political, ideological, or religious goals. It is a crime that is illegal by legislation and immoral. Terrorism has primary and secondary impacts as it affects the target victims and those associated with them. An example of Terrorism activities is the bombing of France in 2015. Social media is an electronic communication in which online communities are developed to share ideas, personal content, and information among other contents. Examples of social media include Facebook and Twitter. ISIS is an abbreviation that stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It is an extremist group governed by the Salafi or Wahhabi law. Propaganda is misleading and biased information spread with the aim of promoting a particular point of view or political course. It is the spread of a rumor, information, or idea with the goal of helping or injuring a person, cause, or institution. War in New Era is a modern challenge faced in the society. An example of modern wars is terrorism. Counter-terrorism is the military or political activities developed to thwart or prevent terrorism activities. It is a strategy that aims at preventing terrorism and its impacts. Overview on Terrorism on Social Media Terrorists use social media due to their broad reach, affordability, and convenience. The aim of the terrorist is to pass the propaganda to the target population at the shortest time possible thus preference of the social media (Gates & Podder). Some of the social media platforms that are convenient and with the broadest reach include Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Affordability of the social media has seen the terrorists use social media to spread information and enhance their goals. Terrorists have also opted for the social media since the conventional ones may not be able to give them a chance to broadcast their propaganda. Surveillance is also not comprehensive on the social media compared to the conventional ones. ISIS and Al-Qaeda are some of the terrorist group that extensively uses social media. Terrorists use social media to raise funds, recruit and radicalize the public (Gates & Podder). They use the encryption tools to conduct these activities thus not able to be traced neither can their identities be revealed. For instance, ISIS is active in internet memes, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. They use the social media to pass propaganda through the uploading of video footages. The terrorists use Muslim grievances to attract the Islamic believers. For instance, they appeal to the Muslims through misquoting the Quran and assuring them that they are championing for their needs. In political cases, they have been claiming responsibility for attacks to show their wit and power. For example, the ISIS took responsibility on some of the attacks on Israel. As a result, the terrorist group portrays as a captivating and powerful entity thus attracting some of the youths (Lia). Some of the terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda have also opened their membership for all irrespective of the nationality or ethnic group. War in a New Era Terrorist integrate social media with their group operation due to the advantages of the former. The internet has enabled the terrorists to develop creative techniques and encryption tools thus making it relatively secure and efficient means of communication. An example of encryption is steganography has allowed them to hide their information in graphic files. Another technique is ‘dead dropping' which enables the terrorist groups to transmit information through a password-secured email account (Kaplan). The internet also allows the terrorists to reach a potential pool of donors and recruits. The internet is used to integrate the ground operations such as planning and implementation that cannot be conducted online. For example, the November 2008 Mumbai attack was possible due to the actual training that the terrorists conducted on a physical camp. War in new era can be described as an attempt to stop the terrorists from spreading their propaganda through social media. In explanation, the war aims at reducing the effectiveness of social media as a tool used by terrorists to cause panic. Terrorists have used social media to post footages as a sign of proclaiming authority. For instance, Al-Qaeda used the internet to post footages of decapitation of Nick Berg, an American hostage; roadside bombings; and kidnap of the Algerian and Egyptian diplomats and their execution (Kaplan). War in a new era, therefore, entails preventing such video propaganda from accessing the public domain without which they will increase terrorist sympathizers and insurgents. Overview on Counterterrorism Propaganda in Social Media Social media use among the terrorists has been linked to the increase in terror attacks. Russia and France are some of the countries that have received most video threats from ISIS. The video threats have been 25 and 20 respectively in a period of two years. Fourteen days before the Paris attack, ISIS released a video calling for the young French population to join the group. The same thing happened on June 26 before attacking Lyon (Lesaca). Social media has also seen the rise of a number of terror recruits and increase in diversity (Gates and Podder). It is, therefore, important that the fight against terrorism be conducted through eliminating of the social media propaganda shared by ISIS among other terror groups. Counterterrorism in the social media platform can be conducted through development and implementation of campaigns that react to the propaganda. The campaigns should also keep the public aware of propaganda in advance. Analysis and monitoring of social media can also help in eliminating some of the videos posted on the platforms that might cause panic. Furthermore, accounts suspected to be linked to the terrorist organization should be blocked (Bartlett & Reynolds 68). Such a process is only possible through the collaboration between the government and the social media private companies. United Nations is some of the global actors fighting terrorist propaganda dispersed through social media. The body conducting the anti-terrorism role in United Nations is the Counterterrorism Committee and is governed by the United Nations Council Resolution 1373 (Wu 281). The European Union and International Monetary Fund have also made efforts to curb terrorist groups using social media through monitoring and auditing. The United States through NATO and the Homeland Security has also been fighting the messages passed by Terrorists through social media. Russia has also drafted their counterterrorism bill. Egypt also has a counter-terror unit addressing the threats that terrorists cause through social media. The United Arab Emirates in conjunction with the United States also have a center to counter the propaganda of terrorists. Social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook have a role to play in fighting terrorism propaganda. The platforms can control the registration process of the terrorist groups. Furthermore, they can suspend the terrorist’s accounts (Lesaca). The social media platform owners are the ones in better place in monitoring the accounts and identifying any suspicious acts thus able to terminate the propaganda messages and close or suspend the accounts used. Main Arguments about Counter Terrorism Propaganda on Social Media  The counter-messaging techniques have not been effective in the addressing the terrorism social media propaganda. ISIS has continued to use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to pass their messages and cause panic among people. Technological developments have made the terror groups to be able to shield their information and use anonymous accounts. Furthermore, the governmental and non-governmental attempts have experienced several shortcomings (Aistrope 121). For example, the surveillance and monitoring of social media accounts have been deemed as infringement of the right to privacy. The foreign policies have also made it difficult to monitor the social media platforms thus making the programs lose authenticity and credibility. Monitoring social media is seen as a business process rather than a censorship when it is done by the private companies such as Twitter and Facebook. However, when the government does it, it is more of censorship as opposed to a business process (Nasr). In explanation, monitoring will be considered more of business when done by the private entity because it will be deemed as a business doing it overseeing role on its customers. It will be like a business monitoring its customer services. The process will call for the reporting of suspicious online activities to the relevant authority. Reporting of Online Activities Act The Act calls for the social media companies to report terrorists' activities and information on the unlawful distribution of explosives conducted online to the relevant authorities (Williams). However, the law gives no power on monitoring the user. Neither does it allow for any of the communication of the stakeholders be monitors by the social media company. The Act defines the terrorist as a person distributes information about weapons of mass destructions, destructive devices, and explosives (Williams). The law protects the social media and public in general from the invasion of privacy and affecting the flow of social media. It protects any user, customer, or subscriber from being monitored (Williams). Furthermore, it protects the monitoring of the content of any of the person's or entity's communication. United Arab Emirates Case Study The United Arab Emirates legislation against the use of social media among the terrorist is found under the cybercrime law (Embassy of the United Arab Emirates). The law criminalizes the use of internet among the terrorists and their groups to finance their activities. It also criminalizes the terrorist groups using social media to pass their ideologies to the public. The United Arab Emirates has two entities that fight terrorism propaganda in social media. The first entity is the Sawab Center, which is a collaboration between the United States and the United Arab Emirates (Embassy of the United Arab Emirates). It aims at countering the terrorist online messaging and propaganda. The headquarter of the entity is in Abu Dhabi. The second entity is the Joint Digital Communication Center. The Center uses Twitter to provide facts on ISIL; counter their claims; highlight the global coalition primary activities against extremists, and amplify the credible voices that speak against ISIL. Work Cited Aistrope, Tim. “Social Media and Counterterrorism Strategy.” Australian Journal of International Affairs 70.2 (2016): 121-138. Bartlett, Jamie, and Louis Reynolds. "The state of the art 2015: A literature review of social media intelligence capabilities for counter-terrorism." (2015). Embassy of the United Arab Emirates. UAE Counterterrorism. UAE Embassy, 2015. Web. 16 May 2016. < http://www.uae-embassy.org/about-uae/foreign-policy/uae-counterterrorism >. Gates, Scott, and Sukanya Podder. "Social Media, Recruitment, Allegiance and the Islamic State." Perspectives on Terrorism 9.4 (2015). Web. 16 May 2016. < http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/446/html >. Kaplan, Eben. Terrorists and the Internet. Terrorism and Technology, 8 January 2009. Web. 16 May 2016. < http://www.cfr.org/terrorism-and-technology/terrorists-internet/p10005#p4 >. Lesaca, Jabier. Fight Against ISIS Reveals Power of Social Media. The Brookings Institution, 19 November 2015. < http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2015/11/19-isis- social-media-power-lesaca >. Lia, Brynjar. "Al-Qaida’s appeal: Understanding its unique selling points."Perspectives on Terrorism 2.8 (2010). Web. 16 May 2016. < http://terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/44/html >. Nasr, Amir. Fighting Terrorism on Facebook Isn’t that Easy. Morning Consult, 19 January 2016. Web. 16 May 2016. < https://morningconsult.com/2016/01/fighting-terrorism-on- facebook-isnt-that-easy/ >. Williams, Lauren C. New Bill Would Force Social Media Companies to Identify Potential Terrorists, Report them to Government. Thinkpprogress, 10 December 2015. < http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/12/10/3730691/facebook-terrorism/ > Wu, Paulina. "Impossible to Regulate: Social Media, Terrorists, and the Role for the UN." Chi. J. Int'l L. 16 (2015): 281- 294. Read More