Terrorism and the weaponisation of the social media

Social media use has increased dramatically over the past decade and is now a major source of information and influence. Used legitimately, it is a vital tool for communication. Unfortunately, it can help groups and individuals with less positive intentions to promote violent ideologies create confusion and spread fear among the general public. Terrorists use a number of methods to indoctrinate and radicalise new followers. With the growth of the Internet and the explosion in popularity of social networking sites all over the world in recent years, terrorist groups have significantly increased their global reach. They are now able to spread propaganda and recruit half way around the world from the convenience of an Internet cafe. Terrorist groups and their members have made a concerted effort to increase their presence on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to go along with their existing Internet presence on web sites, forums and message boards.

However, it is their new found presence on social media sites that allow them to identify and target individuals that are particularly influenced by their propaganda. By reaching out to disillusioned individuals, they attempt to create new followers. The ultimate goal is to indoctrinate and radicalise these people so they feel compelled to commit acts of terrorism. Jihadist terrorism activities in many parts of Africa have been linked to global terrorist movements that rely on modern communication technologies, media, and a globalised social consciousness to promote their belief systems and radicalise susceptible persons who have access to Internet media.

The Institute of Security Studies states that violent extremist groups have over the years become very bold in the use of social media for global reach. They cite an al-Shabaab attack of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013, where the group live-blogged the terrifying event on Twitter, taunting the authorities who were struggling to end the siege. The footage represented a chilling milestone in the weaponisation of social media platforms and demonstrated the audacity and adaptive nature of Africa’s armed groups. Karen Allen says that nearly a decade later, terrorist groups in Africa are fine-tuning their tactics to hijack social media platforms and messaging apps and those parts of the continent have been home to the fastest growing and deadliest violent extremists. In addition, the Global Terrorism Index reveals that there has been a steady rise in incidents where social media platforms and messaging apps have become an integral part of extremists’ modus operandi.

Allen notes that as the physical and online worlds fuse, many groups, especially al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Shabaab are embedding the Internet deeper into their operations. The use of social media has decentralised the character of these groups, which makes them to be harder to intercept and are achieving an online reach that wouldn’t be possible in a physical world. The Institute of Security Studies cites a recent workshop in Ghana organised by Tech against Terrorism that laid out the expansive nature of online terrorist content in Africa and highlighted strategies to mitigate the risks. Violent extremist groups in Africa, especially in the Sahel, East Africa and Lake Chad Basin, use the Internet to deliver propaganda, recruit, radicalise and incite attacks, and finance and plan their operations. Former head of Facebook’s Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organisations Policy section, Erin Saltman, advises that greater efforts are needed to encourage tech companies to ‘prevent and respond’ to terrorism online by increasing their transparency and reporting while respecting human rights.

Violent extremist groups nowadays use the smaller social media platforms to evade detection that result in establishing controls that might end up removing some toxic content from terrorist groups. An example espoused by Allen is that of al-Qaeda in the Magreb, which is one of those terror groups that have demonstrated a high level of aggressiveness in its use of the digital space which uses ‘beacon’ websites to draw Internet traffic to smaller sites.

It also uses ‘aggregators’ designed to offer viewers a cluster of links to the same piece of terrorist content, to evade content moderation. Allen says that while larger platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have the resources to offer a degree of content moderation, many smaller operators don’t and sadly these are the ones terrorist groups prefer. In addition, other groups such as the Boko Haram breakaway faction, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), appear to rely on messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram to communicate internally and externally because they prefer these apps’ encrypted nature. Bulama Burkati, a consultant at the Global Peace Institute laments the fact that Telegram is becoming the new front line for terrorist groups in Africa and on last count, ISWAP had over 50 Facebook and Telegram accounts. Shockingly, there’s no scrutiny and nobody seems to care in Africa. Whether it is about not caring, insufficient research or competing policy priorities, there is little doubt that violent extremist groups in Africa deploy tech differently. Before splitting into two factions, Boko Haram was less aggressive in its use of the Internet, says Bukarti. Nevertheless, it still enjoys significant user traffic, especially to YouTube sites hailing the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf. Alongside accessible content are paid-for-adverts, suggesting that tech companies are ‘making money out of terrorist content,’ Bukarti claims, as more views boost the platform’s revenues. While this may be unintentional, maximising site traffic is part of the business case for Internet platforms. It is worthy to note that while the developed countries have been more successful at calling out tech companies after incidents such as the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand attack, there’s been much less consumer pressure across Africa, a continent which has become a grand theatre of terrorist activities.

Without a universal instrument to suppress online terrorist activities, regional blocs such as the ECOWAS, SADC, EAC, IGAD and others are essential to raising awareness and formulating regional counter-measures. The Global Coalition Against Daesh ISIS and other similar initiatives also have a role in Boko Haram-affected countries in the Lake Chad Basin, says Institute for Security Studies’ Project Manager, Akinola Olojo. As a parting shot, Allen urges African governments to engage with the tech sector to broaden their knowledge of the context in which terrorist organisations thrive and should devise rapid responses that adhere to human rights principles rather than total Internet shutdowns, which deprive citizens of their right to freedom of expression. More than that, they need to make Internet use by terrorist groups in Africa matter to the wider world.