But the most worrying trend has been the use of social media to spread the militant’s messages. These platforms not only allow the sharing of material, but open a direct line of dialogue between the broadcaster and their audience. Reception to material can be easily assessed, allowing for messages to be adapted for greater effectiveness. Questions and criticism can be answered publicly, again bringing the militant and the target audience closer together. The variety of media that can be shared makes it possible for persons with many preferences and resources to be contacted. Finally, the live updates of events often mean that the first reports about an attack come from the terrorist’s perspective.
All of these channels of communication have increased the effectiveness of terrorism by orders of magnitude, with marginal increases in expense and risk. Propaganda, recruiting and training can happen without ever being contact between the recruit and trainers, making lone-wolf attacks ever more likely. Even when terrorists do choose to operate in cells, the connection between cells is dwindling, except for the ideological motivation. The electronic Jihad has proven to be a very profitable initiative.
Naturally, none of this is being ignored by the governments who deal with terrorist threats. Measures are being taken to prevent that terrorist propaganda and training can be distributed online, and the location and monitoring of individuals that exhibit interest in these matters is standard practice. This leads us back to the initial problem: defining terrorism. For every ISIL wannabe that is under scrutiny because he liked some nasheed there are several more “potential domestic terrorists” who present such worrying behaviors as defending their rights to bear arms and demanding freedom of speech in colleges. The arms race is now between those who want to make themselves heard and known without being located, and those who want to suppress their message and find them, while fighting under the flag of freedom.
In conclusion, the evolution and massive expansion of social media, as well as its integration with our daily lives, is perhaps one of the best things to happen to terrorists in the last decades. It is also quite convenient for those that preach for more surveillance and control over information transmission. Those who suffer, as it is usually the case, are the uninvolved civilians who are attacked, targeted, lied to, monitored and si
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