Radicalization and Recruitment on the Social Web
May 10th, 2007By Julie
Community. Immediacy. Anonymity. Openness. Video. Communication.
These are things that appeal to us about the social web – whether updating our personal Facebook profiles or looking at how individuals use technology to engage in political activity. Sometimes, however, it is interesting to get a different perspective.
That’s why we find a new report by GW’s Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) and UVA’s Critical Incident Analysis Group (CIAG) so interesting.
NETworking Radicalization: A Counter-Strategy looks at how the Internet has been used as an active and passive outreach tool for terror networks – and how the social web can be used to begin to counteract radicalization.
Extremists have come to value the Internet so highly that some “jihadists” have adopted the slogan “keyboard equals Kalashnikov.”
HSPI’s suggestions for developing a counter-strategy starts with looking at how the extremist narrative is understood, how it is crafted and adapted, and how it is targeted and then using online grassroots activity to challenge the terrorist narrative.
Interested in reading more? Check out HSPI director Frank J. Cilluffo testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs last week.
According to Cilluffo,
Cyberspace is now the battlefield and the “war” is one of ideas. Our adversaries currently have firm possession of the battlefield because they understand this shift and have crafted and disseminated a narrative that resonates and has served both to energize and expand their ranks. Internet chat rooms are now supplementing and replacing mosques, community centers and coffee shops as venues for recruitment and radicalization by terrorist groups like al Qaeda. Real time, two-way dialogue of chat rooms has taken the fight global, enabling extremist ideas to be shared, take root, be reaffirmed and spread exponentially.
For a different perspective, check out Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Sure, it’s a work of fiction. But Stephenson offers an interesting look at the way ideology spreads online.
