Fighting the cyber jihadists
Last month, the United Nations held the world’s fi rst “Social Media Day.” Supported by Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland, the main thrust of the inaugural event was to showcase how different organizations are using social media in positive ways to “create online movements through strategic storytelling, community-generated content and amplifying action.”
Unfortunately, those using digital technologies to promote social good were overshadowed by violent extremists around the globe who have become adept at using such platforms as Twitter, YouTube and SnapChat to promote or carry out blatant human-rights violations.
Welcome to the age of digital jihad. Social media is increasingly being used by extremists as a weapon of war to indoctrinate others with their violent ideologies, to advertise rather than hide their crimes against humanity, to incite hate and violence, and attract new religious fighters to their ranks.
Take, for example the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists, who recently posted a video online threatening to behead U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House, then a few days later actually beheaded the Japanese journalist Kenjo Goto, only to take depravity to a new level by releasing video footage of a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage. Or consider that ISIS has more than 45,000 active Twitter accounts that are programmed to churn out propaganda and call for Muslims to commit murder and large-scale killings in the West.
While social media is not the sole cause of radicalization, online technologies have made calls to religious violence by non-state actors easily accessible to anyone with a smartphone or a computer. As the fight against extremism increasingly takes place in cyberspace, many Western governments and institutions have committed to fight homegrown terrorism and radicalization, particularly online.
Of course there are challenges. Terrorist groups profit from the constant technological progress and governments are struggling to keep up. How does the extremist propaganda machine work? What sophisticated methods do extremist groups use to spread their message? Most of all, what can Western governments, civil society groups and individual citizens do to not only identify would-be jihadists and “lone wolves,” but to counter extremists’ violent discourse and hate speech?
The good news is that gov- ernments, civil society and influential players in the world of online technology are collaborating to meet these challenges. This past October, officials from the European Union met with representatives from Internet giants including Google, Twitter and Facebook to discuss possible ways they could collaborate to prevent ISIS and other jihadists groups from using their online platforms.
In December 2014, a landmark case in a court in the United Kingdom sentenced a woman to more than five years in jail for promoting terrorism on Facebook, thereby supporting the British authorities’ desire to “make the Internet a more hostile place for terrorists.” In the same vein, France recently passed an anti-terrorism law that includes articles banning the promotion or glorification of terrorism online.
After the unveiling of new anti-terrorism legislation by the Harper government last month, it is clear that Canada is not the only country looking at how to deal with this growing problem. These responses to online extremism are controversial, and they raise valid questions of freedom of speech, online privacy and civil liberties.
After the cold blooded murder of the Charlie Hebdo political cartoonists in Paris last month, the hacker group known as Anonymous released a video in which it served notice that it intended to avenge the murdered journalists by shutting down jihadist websites. It is clear that civil society must be part of the solution and help develop new tools and strategies to counter those extremists who use social media as a weapon of war.
Allowing digital jihad to continue unchecked endangers the lives of civilians across the world, including in Canada and other Western countries. A wider global network must be formed to fight extremist groups online. Stopping ISIS is everybody’s responsibility.
Matthews: ‘Welcome to the age of digital jihad. Social media is increasingly being used by extremists as a weapon of war.’ ISIS and their ilk don’t hide their war crimes. They share them as widely as possible