‘Internet, social media platforms now toolkits of militant groups’
New Delhi, India - External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on Saturday, said that the internet and social platforms have become potent instruments in the toolkit of terrorists.
“Internet and social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the toolkit of terrorists and militant groups for spreading propaganda, radicalisation and conspiracy theories aimed at destabilising societies,” Jaishankar said at the special meeting of the Counter-terrorism Committee (CTC) on ‘Countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes’ in New Delhi.
Characterising terrorism as one of the gravest threats to humanity, the minister said the UN Security Council, in the past two decades, ‘has evolved an important architecture, built primarily around the counter-terrorism sanctions regime, to combat this menace’. “And this has been very effective in putting those countries on notice that had turned terrorism into a Statefunded enterprise.”
He noted that the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa, as successive reports of the 1267 Sanctions
Committee Monitoring Reports have highlighted. In his address,
Jaishankar said that in recent years, terrorist groups, their ideological fellow travellers, particularly in open and liberal
societies and ‘lone wolf’ attackers have significantly enhanced their capabilities by gaining access to these technologies.
“They use technology and money, and most importantly,
the ethos of open societies, to attack freedom, tolerance and progress,” he said.
The external affairs minister also announced that India will make a contribution of half a million dollars to the UN Trust Fund for Counter-terrorism
(UNOCT) to help in capacitybuilding support to Member States in countering terrorism.
Jaishankar said he had advo
cated for member states to increase funding for UN organs such as UNOCT.
The ongoing meeting in Delhi is being held under India’s chair of the CTC. Jaishnkar told CTC members that their presence in Delhi at the special meeting demonstrates the importance that the UNSC member states and a wide range of stakeholders, place on this critical and emerging facet of terrorism.
“That the council is holding this special meeting of its counter-terrorism meetings in India, is also a product of the fact that counterterrorism has become one of the top priorities during our ongoing tenure in the security council,” he added.
Highlighting the flip sides of emerging technologies, Jaishnakar said technologies like vir
Terror groups use technology, money, and ethos of open societies to attack freedom, tolerance and progress s jaishankar
tual private network, encrypted message services and blockchains, have also thrown up new challenges for governments and regulatory bodies ‘due to their potential vulnerability for their misuse by non-state actors, given the very nature of some of these technologies and the nascent regulatory environment’.