The Digital Battlefield: Combatting Terrorism On Social Media – OpEd
In modern globalized world, connections with the community and communication are held via social networks like X, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Nevertheless, social media sites make suitable assets to the terrorist organizations as well, as they help them in the process of radicalization, propaganda, and recruitment.
This should be of great concern since there are certain terror groups, which are listed as proscribed by the United Nations who find it very easy to make use of these sites. Increasing the power and accessibility of social media, it becomes a comfortable environment, in which extremist organizations advertise their agenda, usually with no restrictions imposed, and in some cases, to minimize effectiveness of with-messages (i.e. to enhance their effectiveness). This has turned out to be a major threat to international security since the social media is starting to be used more extensively in such ways.
In the recent past, social media has been a topic of discussion in a press conference where Talal Chaudary, who was the Pakistani Minister of State of Interior doubled up as the spokesman of this issue. The Minister stressed that this growing abuse needs an international answer to ensure some digital platforms will not be used by UN-approved terrorist organizations. He even urged the social media sites to filter names who belong to a terrorist organization or those who encourage it, as provided by the Government of Pakistan, and take the appropriate course of action employing more objective technological capabilities not to mention, AI-based security net to prevent this malpractice in the future. It must be noted that this is not a problem that exists in only one country. The world is hit with terrorism and the unregulated utilization of social media is emerging as a menace to worldwide peace and safety.
The terrorist organizations like ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are actively utilizing social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and X, thus reaching out to people, including their followers, and recruits. They are extraordinarily fast in communication, they are anonymous, in their broad distribution systems make it possible to disseminate content, whilst at the same time encrypted messaging applications allow planning and coordination of violence in a way that is anonymous. This decentralization way enables the terrorist organizations to evade the media attention and to cover a broad area to propagate violent ideas beyond hindrance. The scariest aspect is that the extremist content may be distributed despite the borders, and in most situations, the government or the social media moderators do not interfere and, therefore, the social media turns out to be a severe means of radicalizations.
This is what happened to the Khandaq spring operation of TTP which was announced and planned through the social media. Live streaming of over 50 of the group attacks targeting the military in Pakistan was done. This transformation into the so-called digital warfare indicates to the fact that social media are facilitators of terrorist actions. These groups make their violent acts more effective by broadcasting them in real time; they also attract additional members who join them as they raise the psychological effect of such violence. The live attacks also assist in spreading the message of the terrorists and gain international attentions that promote their plans to perpetrate violence.
When postings on extremist content in social nets are published, this information is distributed within a short period and thus, it is a circle of spreading propaganda. The ability of the content to spread without control is a ground that stimulates radicalization, as the innocent individuals are exposed to the radical messages and influenced to consume the violent concepts. This is certainly so because the fact that social media is not more useful in curbing the spread of this type of material renders the problem more problematic.
This is a grave threat and Pakistani Government pointed out a critical matter, attention of which must be immediately paid by other governments and social media platforms. Lack of good headline protections and technological protection is one of the greatest challenges facing the defeat of this new menace. The posts in social media are regulated with the assistance of algorithms that are generally not useful in real-time transfer of terrorist-related information. Such systems are characterized by their user preoccupation with one centralized spot, which has the tendency of promoting sensational or even other emotionally driven content, including extremist content. Content moderation and filter mechanism of keywords still fails to capture the terrorists. This means that it is even possible that even after the extremist contents have been flagged, it may be several hours later or even days before the contents are taken off and many of the contents may have already reached massive numbers. The sluggish editing of the contents on the social media platforms has further facilitated the proliferation of terrorism propaganda, which further radicalizes people into turning to terrorists and fuels violence.
To eliminate this concern, the social media companies need to stop concentrating on the extent they may engage the users but instead ensure that their platforms are safe and secure. To prevent spreading of extremist content, it could be feasible to use high-tech methods such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and find and remove the extremist content early. Well-developed algorithms, secret control and prior content review play key roles in preventing that terrorist contents are not shared. The platforms should also enhance their reporting codes that would allow the users to report the dangerous content with ease and even quicker.
It is also the responsibility of governments to play a great role in the struggle against online terrorism. This is because the misuse of the social media by the terrorists as it has been revealed in the current press briefing by the Pakistani authorities is a case which demands to be dealt with in an expedited manner through a global unified action against them. Governments should work more closely with governments in other countries as well as co-labor with technology companies to develop more strict guidelines and a more effective content regulation system. This must include investment in the technological infrastructure to track the movement of terrorists in the cyber world, compilation of data to carry out cross-references on intelligence operations and trying of the cyber terrorists who are involved in transmitting terror ideologies over the internet to their counterparts. It has solid legal frameworks that must be established to make the culprits responsible in the act of practicing extremism via online channels.
There is a global security threat of expanding the abuse of its social media by their terrorists’ groups. The ability of the organization like ISIS, al-Qaeda, and TTP to facilitate the attacks, live-stream blood, and even recruit members on such media is also a matter that demands consideration. Instead, it should be a global concerted initiative against misuse of the digital channels of the extremist group intents. The only mechanism through which social media is not to be utilized as a tool of radicalization, but as the means of being rather peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive is international cooperation, more strict regulations, and content moderation. Now is the time of action.
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